the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Bible in Basic English
Proverbs 26:4
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- InternationalParallel Translations
Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishnessor you’ll be like him yourself.
Don't answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, Or you will also be like him.
Don't answer fools when they speak foolishly, or you will be just like them.
Do not answer [nor pretend to agree with the frivolous comments of] a [closed-minded] fool according to his folly, Otherwise you, even you, will be like him.
Don't answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.
Answer not a foole according to his foolishnes, least thou also be like him.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,Lest you yourself also be like him.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him.
Don't make a fool of yourself by answering a fool.
Don't answer a fool in terms of his folly, or you will be descending to his level;
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
There is no good way to answer fools when they say something stupid. If you answer them, then you, too, will look like a fool. If you don't answer them, they will think they are smart.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be also like him.
If you answer a silly question, you are just as silly as the person who asked it.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly lest you become like him—even you.
Answer not a fool according to his foolishness, lest you become like him, even you.
Geue not the foole an answere after his foolishnesse, lest thou become like vnto him:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answere not a foole according to his folly, lest thou also be like vnto him.
Geue not the foole an aunswere after his foolishnes, lest thou become like vnto him.
Princes are prone to anger: let them then not drink wine:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answere thou not to a fool bi his foli, lest thou be maad lijk hym.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or else you will also be like him.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like him.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you yourself also be like him.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.
Don't answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.
Do not answer a fool by his foolish ways, or you will be like him.
Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you will be a fool yourself.
Do not answer a dullard, according to his folly, lest, even thou thyself, become like him;
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be made like him.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou be like to him -- even thou.
Don't respond to the stupidity of a fool; you'll only look foolish yourself.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Proverbs 17:14, Judges 12:1-6, 2 Samuel 19:41-43, 1 Kings 12:14, 1 Kings 12:16, 2 Kings 14:8-10, 1 Peter 2:21-23, 1 Peter 3:9, Jude 1:9
Reciprocal: 2 Kings 18:36 - held their peace Job 12:3 - But I have Proverbs 23:9 - Speak Proverbs 29:9 - General Isaiah 36:21 - General Jeremiah 36:18 - He Matthew 21:24 - I also Matthew 22:22 - they marvelled Mark 11:33 - Neither Luke 20:8 - General Luke 20:26 - they could John 8:7 - and said John 8:49 - I have not Colossians 4:6 - how
Cross-References
And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered.
And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.
In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing?
And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge:
Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham;
I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth;
And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.
So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there.
And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Answer not a fool according to his folly,.... Sometimes a fool, or wicked man, is not to be answered at all; as the ministers of Hezekiah answered not a word to Rabshakeh; nor Jeremiah the prophet to Hananiah; nor Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees; and when an answer is returned, it should not be in his foolish way and manner, rendering evil for evil, and railing for railing, in the same virulent, lying, calumniating, and reproachful language;
lest thou also be like unto him; lest thou also, who art a man of understanding and sense, and hast passed for one among men, come under the same imputation, and be reckoned a fool like him.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Two sides of a truth. To âanswer a fool according to his follyâ is in Proverbs 26:4 to bandy words with him, to descend to his level of coarse anger and vile abuse; in Proverbs 26:5 it is to say the right word at the right time, to expose his unwisdom and untruth to others and to himself, not by a teaching beyond his reach, but by words that he is just able to apprehend. The apparent contradiction between the two verses led some of the rabbis to question the canonical authority of this book. The Pythagoreans had maxims expressing a truth in precepts seemingly contradictory.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Proverbs 26:4. Answer not a fool — On this and the following verse Bishop Warburton, who has written well on many things, and very indifferently on the doctrine of grace, has written with force and perspicuity: "Had this advice been given simply, and without circumstance, to answer the fool, and not to answer him, one who had reverence for the text would satisfy himself in supposing that the different directions referred to the doing a thing in and out of season;
1. The reasons given why a fool should not be answered according to his folly, is, "lest he (the answerer) should be like unto him."
2. The reason given why the fool should be answered according to his folly, is, "lest he (the fool) should be wise in his own conceit."
"1. The cause assigned for forbidding to answer, therefore, plainly insinuates that the defender of religion should not imitate the insulter of it in his modes of disputation, which may be comprised in sophistry, buffoonery, and scurrility.
"2. The cause assigned for directing to answer, as plainly intimates that the sage should address himself to confute the fool upon his own false principles, by showing that they lead to conclusions very wide from, very opposite to, those impieties he would deduce from them. If any thing can allay the fool's vanity, and prevent his being wise in his own conceit, it must be the dishonour of having his own principles turned against himself, and shown to be destructive of his own conclusions."-Treatise on Grace. Preface.
