Proverbs 26:4

26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, ¹ 

lest you yourself also be like him. ² 

Ecclesiastes 10:13

10:13 At the beginning his words ³  are foolish

and at the end ⁴  his talk ⁵  is wicked madness, ⁶ 

Matthew 7:6

7:6 Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces. ⁷ 

Matthew 11:17-19

11:17 ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; ⁸ 

we wailed in mourning, ⁹  yet you did not weep.’

11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ ¹⁰  11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, ¹¹  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors ¹²  and sinners!’ ¹³  But wisdom is vindicated ¹⁴  by her deeds.” ¹⁵ 

[26:4]  ¹ sn One should not answer a fool’s foolish questions in line with the fool’s mode of reasoning (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 274).

[26:4]  ² sn The person who descends to the level of a fool to argue with him only looks like a fool as well.

[10:13]  ³ tn Heb “the words of his mouth.”

[10:13]  ⁴ sn The terms “beginning” and “end” form a merism, a figure of speech in which two opposites are contrasted to indicate totality (e.g., Deut 6:7; Ps 139:8; Eccl 3:2-8). The words of a fool are madness from “start to finish.”

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “his mouth.”

[10:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “madness of evil.”

[7:6]  ⁷ tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).

[11:17]  ⁸ sn ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance…’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 18-19) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.

[11:17]  ⁹ tn The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (eqrhnhsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.

[11:18]  ¹⁰ sn John the Baptist was too separatist and ascetic for some, and so he was accused of not being directed by God, but by a demon.

[11:19]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[11:19]  ¹² sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[11:19]  ¹³ sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.

[11:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “shown to be right.”

[11:19]  ¹⁵ tc Most witnesses (B² C D L Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï lat) have “children” (τέκνων, teknwn) here instead of “deeds” (ἔργων, ergwn), but since “children” is the reading of the parallel in Luke 7:35, scribes would be motivated to convert the less colorful “deeds” into more animate offspring of wisdom. Further, ἔργων enjoys support from א B* W (˹³) as well as early versional and patristic support.