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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Proverbs 26:5

Give a silly answer to a silly question, and the one who asked it will realize that he's not as smart as he thinks.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Conceit;   Fool;   Pride;   Prudence;   Reproof;   Speaking;   Thompson Chain Reference - Conceit;   Humility-Pride;   The Topic Concordance - Speech/communication;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Wisdom literature;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Religion;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Greek Versions of Ot;   Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Fool;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Canon of the Old Testament;   Conceit;   Discrepancies, Biblical;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Answer a fool according to his foolishnessor he’ll become wise in his own eyes.
Hebrew Names Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
King James Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
English Standard Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
New American Standard Bible
Answer a fool as his foolishness deserves, So that he will not be wise in his own eyes.
New Century Version
Answer fools when they speak foolishly, or they will think they are really wise.
Amplified Bible
Answer [and correct the erroneous concepts of] a fool according to his folly, Otherwise he will be wise in his own eyes [if he thinks you agree with him].
World English Bible
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Answere a foole according to his foolishnes, least he be wise in his owne conceite.
Legacy Standard Bible
Answer a fool according to his folly,Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Berean Standard Bible
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.
Contemporary English Version
But if you answer any fools, show how foolish they are, so they won't feel smart.
Complete Jewish Bible
but answer a fool as his folly deserves, so that he won't think he is wise.
Darby Translation
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
George Lamsa Translation
But answer a fool according to your wisdom, lest he think in himself that he is wise.
Lexham English Bible
Answer a fool according to his folly, or else he will be wise in his own eyes.
Literal Translation
Answer a fool according to his foolishness, that he not be wise in his own eyes.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but make ye foole an answere to his foolishnesse, lest he be wyse in his owne coceate.
American Standard Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Bible in Basic English
Give a foolish man a foolish answer, or he will seem wise to himself.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
King James Version (1611)
Answere a foole according to his folly, lest hee be wise in his owne conceit.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But make the foole an aunswere to his foolishnesse, lest he be wyse in his owne conceipt.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
lest they drink, and forget wisdom, and be not able to judge the poor rightly.
English Revised Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Answere thou a fool bi his fooli, lest he seme to him silf to be wijs.
Update Bible Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, Or else he will be wise in his own eyes.
Webster's Bible Translation
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
New English Translation
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own estimation.
New King James Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
New Living Translation
Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their own estimation.
New Life Bible
Answer a fool in the way he has earned by his foolish acts, so he will not be wise in his own eyes.
New Revised Standard
Answer fools according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Answer a dullard according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise.
Revised Standard Version
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Young's Literal Translation
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
THE MESSAGE
Answer a fool in simple terms so he doesn't get a swelled head.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes.

Contextual Overview

4 If you answer a silly question, you are just as silly as the person who asked it. 5 Give a silly answer to a silly question, and the one who asked it will realize that he's not as smart as he thinks.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a fool: 1 Kings 22:24-28, Jeremiah 36:17, Jeremiah 36:18, Matthew 15:1-3, Matthew 16:1-4, Matthew 21:23-27, Matthew 22:15-32, Luke 12:13-21, Luke 13:23-30, John 8:7, John 9:26-33, Titus 1:13

lest: Proverbs 26:12, Proverbs 28:11, Romans 11:25

conceit: Heb. eyes, Isaiah 5:21, Romans 12:16

Reciprocal: Proverbs 23:9 - Speak Matthew 21:24 - I also Matthew 22:22 - they marvelled Mark 11:33 - Neither Luke 20:8 - General Luke 20:26 - they could Luke 20:40 - General John 8:49 - I have not Colossians 4:6 - how

Cross-References

Genesis 12:4
When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him.
Genesis 17:23
On that same day Abraham obeyed God and circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his household, including the slaves born in his home and those he had bought.
Genesis 18:19
I have chosen him in order that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised."
Genesis 22:16
"I make a vow by my own name—the Lord is speaking—that I will richly bless you. Because you did this and did not keep back your only son from me,
Genesis 22:18
All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants—all because you obeyed my command."
Genesis 26:1
There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
Genesis 26:2
The Lord had appeared to Isaac and had said, "Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay.
Genesis 26:6
So Isaac lived at Gerar.
Matthew 5:19
So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 7:24
"So then, anyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Answer a fool according to his folly,.... The Targum is,

"but speak with a fool in thy wisdom;''

and the Syriac version,

"yea, speak with a fool according to thy wisdom;''

which would at once remove the seeming contradiction in these words to the former, but then they are not a true version; indeed it is right, and must be the sense, that when a fool is answered, as it is sometimes necessary he should, that it be done in wisdom, and so as to expose his folly; he is to be answered and not answered according to different times, places, and circumstances, and manner of answering; he is to be answered when there is any hope of doing him good, or of doing good to others; or of preventing ill impressions being made upon others by what he has said; when the glory of God, the good of the church, and the cause of truth, require it; and when he would otherwise glory and triumph, as if his words or works were unanswerable, as follow;

lest he be wise in his own conceit; which fools are apt to be, and the rather when no answer is given them; imagining it arises from the strength of their arguments, and their nervous way of reasoning, when it is rather from a neglect and contempt of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Two sides of a truth. To “answer a fool according to his folly” 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.


 
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