Proverbs 26:4-5
When Should We Answer or Not Answer a Fool
After an instruction in Pro 26:3 on how to deal with the fool, an instruction on how to speak to the fool follows in Pro 26:4-5. The two verses are very similar and at first glance seem to contradict each other. But what appears to be a contradiction turns out to be perfection on closer inspection. It comes down to close reading.In Pro 26:4 the instruction is “noy to answer a fool according to his folly”. The second line of verse explains why that should not be done. The issue here is the consequence for him who would answer. If you answer him, you will be like him. If you answer him, you become a fool yourself. This happens when you descend in your answer to his level of thinking. Therefore, you should not do that. Do not lower yourself to the level of the fool by answering his foolish question and arguing with him as if he were a wise man.We can apply this instruction to what Paul preaches to Timothy: “But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels” (2Tim 2:23). We are not to respond to foolish and incongruous contentious questions, or else we will cooperate in producing quarrels.In Pro 26:5, the instruction is to answer “a fool as his folly [deserves]”. The second line of verse explains why this should be done. The issue here is the consequence for the fool. He who punishes a fool discourages him from thinking highly of himself.The purpose of putting these two verses together is to show that human problems are often complicated and cannot always be solved by appealing to a single rule. It depends on the situation. In one case, one should not lower oneself to the level of a fool, for then one joins the circle of fools. In the other case, one should, for then the fool is put in his place.Paul, of necessity, spoke once as an unwise, that is, as a fool. That was to correct the Corinthians, who were wise in their own eyes (2Cor 11:16-17; 2Cor 12:11). The prophet Micah did both the one and the other toward Ahab (1Kgs 22:15; 17). If there is grace in our heart and also the will to take nothing away from God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will let us know how to answer everyone (Col 4:6).A preacher once answered a fool according to his folly. When he was asked a foolish, unanswerable question, he replied: ‘You can find the answer in the second chapter of the letter of Jude’.Another comment that may help understand these two verses is found in the Jewish Talmud. The Talmud contains the commentaries of the main rabbis and other scholars on the Tenach, that is the Old Testament. It states that Pro 26:4 presumably refers to foolish commentaries that one should ignore and Pro 26:5 refers to a misrepresentation that one should correct.
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