“Answer a fool according to his folly”: This line is the positive form of the corresponding line in verse 4. The expression “according to his folly” is identical in the two lines, but translations differ as to whether it should be rendered identically in each case. Versions that translate literally wherever possible naturally use the same words here as in verse 4; this accounts for versions such as Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, and New Jerusalem Bible in English. In a translation such as Revised English Bible, however, the use of the identical rendering “as his folly deserves” in the two cases is clearly a deliberate choice to focus on the element of paradox in the saying. The tradition of translating the expression differently in the two verses goes back to the Septuagint, which renders “according to” as “in favor of” (pros in Greek) in verse 4 and as “against” (kata in Greek) in verse 5, and which begins verse 5 with a strong adversative “but” (alla in Greek). In contrast with the way Revised English Bible has handled the expression, New English Bible says “in the language of his folly” in verse 4 but “as his folly deserves” in verse 5.

“Lest he be wise in his own eyes”: If the fool is given a reasonable answer, according to this line, he will consider himself to be wise when he is really not. Accordingly, the advice is to “answer a fool as his folly deserves, or he will think himself wise” (Revised English Bible). :Alternatively, this verse may be suggesting that the fool should be given an answer that shows up his foolishness (Contemporary English Version “shows how foolish they are”).

In rendering verses 4-5 translators may follow either of the approaches referred to above. A translation that uses identical wording for “according to his folly” in each verse says, for example: “If a person who doesn’t have good thinking makes silly talk to you, don’t answer him. It is not good for you to be like him. If a person who doesn’t have good thinking makes silly talk to you, you must answer him and make him understand that he’s not as wise as he thought.”

As an example of a translation that takes “according to his folly” in two different ways, Eugene Peterson says in The Message: “Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool; you’ll only look stupid yourself. Answer a fool in simple terms so he doesn’t get a swelled head.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .