Proverbs 26:4

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 - by answering taunt with taunt, angry sneer with sneer, folly with folly. "Thou also," even thou, who by godly wisdom art widely different, and raised far above him....

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

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....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 26:1 Certain proverbs concerning the fool (_kesil_),_ _with the exception, perhaps, of Proverbs 26:2 (see on Proverbs 1:22). PROVERBS 26:1 AS SNOW IN SUMMER, AND AS RAIN IN HARVEST. Snow in summer would be quite unnatural and unheard of (see on Proverbs 25:13). Rain falls in the usual course of things only at stated times; whence arose the phrase of "the early and of latter rains" (see on...

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....

CHAPTER 26 CONCERNING THE FOOL AND THE SLUGGARD Eleven times we meet the word fool in this chapter. Three different words are used in the Hebrew for fool. The first is “avil” which signifies weakness. The second word “kesil” occurs nearly fifty times, means fat or dense. The third word is the Hebrew “nabal,” which is derived from the verb to fade, or to wither; it means a vulgar, bad man who has given himself over to wickedness. The natural man in his condition, his darkened mind, his sinfulness answers to much that is said about the fool in this book. As snow in summer and rain at harvest time are quiteimpossible in Palestine, so is honor for a fool. A fool may utter a curse, as they often do, and wish something evil, but being causeless, it will not be fulfilled. The fool needs correction, the stripes for his back, he deserves no answer, and if he is answered it must be according to hi...

THE BOOK OF FOOLS. A section containing a series of synthetic couplets dealing with folly (except Proverbs 26:2). The text is unusually corrupt and defective. PROVERBS 26:1. For the opposite use of snow in harvest _cf._ Proverbs 25:13 *. Proverbs 26:2. Directed against the superstitious belief in the magical value of a curse. The simile refers to the aimless wandering of a bird, and is not to be compared with the flying roll of curses in Zechariah 5:1....

ANSWER NOT. The point of Proverbs 26:3 is that you cannot reason with. fool; Proverbs 26:4 gives the reason. If you answer not according to his folly, he will think he is wise like yourself. If you do answer him according to his folly, he will think you are. fool like he is: i.e. according to Proverbs 26:3 you cannot _reason_ with him. These are finely stated facts, not commands. FOLLY. Hebrew. _'evil._ See note on Proverbs 1:7....

_according to_ Let not your answer be according to his folly in foolishness; but let it be according to it in appositeness....

ANSWER NOT A FOOL, &C.— They who choose to review antiquity, in its antique garb, will observe, that had the folly of these fools been only of one condition or denomination, then the advice to _answer,_ and _not to answer,_ had been repugnant to itself: but as their folly was of various kinds, in some of which to _answer_ might offend the dignity, and in others _not to answer_ might hurt the interests of truth; _to answer,_ and _not to answer_ is a consistent, and may, for aught critics know, be a very wise direction. Had the advice been given simply, and without circumstance, _to answer the fool,_ and _not to answer him,_ a critic, 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._ But when to the general advice about answering, this circumstance is added, _according to his folly,_ that i...