the Fourth Week after Easter
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THE MESSAGE
Proverbs 26:5
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- BridgewayEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
Answer a fool according to his foolishnessor he’ll become wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool as his foolishness deserves, So that he will not be wise in his own eyes.
Answer fools when they speak foolishly, or they will think they are really wise.
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].
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answere a foole according to his foolishnes, least he be wise in his owne conceite.
Answer a fool according to his folly,Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.
But if you answer any fools, show how foolish they are, so they won't feel smart.
but answer a fool as his folly deserves, so that he won't think he is wise.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
But answer a fool according to your wisdom, lest he think in himself that he is wise.
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.
Answer a fool according to his folly, or else he will be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his foolishness, that he not be wise in his own eyes.
but make ye foole an answere to his foolishnesse, lest he be wyse in his owne coceate.
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Give a foolish man a foolish answer, or he will seem wise to himself.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answere a foole according to his folly, lest hee be wise in his owne conceit.
But make the foole an aunswere to his foolishnesse, lest he be wyse in his owne conceipt.
lest they drink, and forget wisdom, and be not able to judge the poor rightly.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Answere thou a fool bi his fooli, lest he seme to him silf to be wijs.
Answer a fool according to his folly, Or else he will be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own estimation.
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their own estimation.
Answer a fool in the way he has earned by his foolish acts, so he will not be wise in his own eyes.
Answer fools according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes.
Answer a dullard according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.
Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes.
Contextual Overview
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
So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound. Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his servants, whether houseborn or purchased—every male in his household—and circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins that very day, just as God had told him.
There was a famine in the land, as bad as the famine during the time of Abraham. And Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
God appeared to him and said, "Don't go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you. Stay here in this land and I'll be with you and bless you. I'm giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I'll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge—my commands, my guidelines, my teachings."
So Isaac stayed put in Gerar.
"Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom.
"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.
Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?
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 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.
