What Does Proverbs 26:4 Mean?
Answer not a thick-headed one according to his folly, lest you also come level with him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.THE KEY
The danger is not simply answering folly, but letting your answer make you like the one you answer.
THE MEANING
This verse names a live danger in speech: adopting a foolish person’s frame can make your reply reproduce what it opposes. Wisdom discerns whether an answer stays distinct or becomes a mirror.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that answering on a fool’s terms proves you are wiser; the answer can instead draw you into the same likeness.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁוֶה
tishveh
GROWS FROM
שוה
to be equal or alike
“come level with him” in this verse is tishveh. The verb points to becoming like the fool, not merely standing near him. The warning is that a reply can level the difference between the one who answers and the one being answered.
ALSO GROWS
shaveh: equal, alike
שָׁוֶה
This makes the verse’s warning about likeness concrete: the speaker risks becoming equal in kind to the fool.
hishvah: to compare or make equal
הִשְׁוָה
This related form echoes the verse’s concern that a response can bring two people onto the same footing.
תַּעַן
ta'an
GROWS FROM
ענה
to respond or answer
“answer” in this verse is ta'an. The verse speaks of a response, an act shaped by what it meets. Its warning turns on the manner of answering: a reply that takes on folly’s shape may carry that folly forward.
ALSO GROWS
anah: to answer or respond
עָנָה
This is the verb family behind the command, keeping attention on how a person responds to another’s speech.
ma'aneh: an answer or response
מַעֲנֶה
The noun for an answer reflects the same responsive act that the verse cautions can become a mirror.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom discerns when to answer folly and when to refuse its frame, so the response does not become its echo.
Answer a thick-headed one according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to swell.Set aside the dull and untrained questions, knowing that they give birth to fights.THE THREAD
Answer a thick-headed one according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.Both verses use the same Hebrew answer verb, ענה (anah), meaning “to answer” or “respond.” Together they show discernment by its consequences: one answer risks making the speaker like the fool, while another can keep the fool from becoming wise in his own conceit.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us