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Easy-to-Read Version
Proverbs 26:4
Bible Study Resources
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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.
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.
Do not give to the foolish man a foolish answer, or you will be like 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
I will make your people so many that they will be like the dust of the earth. If people could count all the particles of dust on earth, they could count your people.
Then God led Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky. See the many stars. There are so many you cannot count them. Your family will be like that."
So on that day the Lord made a promise and an agreement with Abram. He said, "I will give this land to your descendants. I will give them the land between the River of Egypt and the great river Euphrates.
Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on earth will be blessed because of him.
The Lord spoke to Isaac and said, "Don't go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I commanded you to live in.
Stay in this land, and I will be with you. I will bless you. I will give you and your family all these lands. I will do what I promised to Abraham your father.
I will make your family as many as the stars of heaven, and I will give all these lands to your family. Through your descendants every nation on earth will be blessed.
After Isaac had lived there a long time, Abimelech looked out of his window and saw Isaac and his wife enjoying one another.
So Isaac left that place and camped near the little river of Gerar. He stayed there and lived.
Long before this time, Abraham had dug many wells. After he died, the Philistines filled the wells with sand. So Isaac went back and dug those wells again. He gave them the same names 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.
