Proverbs 26:5

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 CONCEIT. The former verse forbids to answer a fool foolishly: it is better to be silent than so to answer him. If he be in a frame plainly incapable of receiving a wise answer, do not answer him at all (). But where he needs to be convicted of folly, lest he go away with the notion of his own superior wisdom, answer him so as to confute him. Unanswered words may be deemed unanswerable: answer, then, not in folly, but to folly-the answer which his folly requires. Compare Jesus' silence and His answer, in conformity with both precepts, , before Caiaphas; John 19:9, b...

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 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 word...

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....

CONCEIT. eyes....

_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...

CHAPTER 26 TEXT Proverbs 26:1-9 1. As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, So honor is not seemly for a fool. 2. As a sparrow in her wandering, as the swallow in her flying, So the curse that is causeless alighteth not. 3. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, And a rod for the back of fools. 4. Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him. 5. Answer a fool according to his folly. Lest he be wise in his own conceit. 6. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool Cutteth off his own feet, and drinketh in damage. 7. The legs of the lame hang loose; So is a parable in the mouth of fools. 8. As one that bindeth a stone in a sling, So is he that giveth honor to a fool. 9. As a thorn that goet