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Don’t answer a fool according to his folly,
    lest you also be like him.
Answer a fool according to his folly,
    lest he be wise in his own eyes.

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Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness,
    or you will be just like him.
Answer a fool according to his foolishness,
    or he will think himself to be wise.

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17 Like one who grabs a dog’s ears
    is one who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own.

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17 Picking up a dog by the ears—
    that’s what someone is like who[a] meddles in another’s fight.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 26:17 Lit. who, as he is passing by,

20 For lack of wood a fire goes out.
    Without gossip, a quarrel dies down.
21 As coals are to hot embers,
    and wood to fire,
    so is a contentious man to kindling strife.

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On Gossip and Backbiting

20 Without wood, the fire goes out.
    Without a gossip, contention stops.
21 Charcoal is to hot coals
    as wood is to fire;
        so also a quarrelsome man fuels strife.

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22 An angry man stirs up strife,
    and a wrathful man abounds in sin.

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22 An angry man stirs up arguments,
    and a hot-tempered man causes many transgressions.

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33     For as the churning of milk produces butter,
    and the wringing of the nose produces blood;
    so the forcing of wrath produces strife.”

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33 Just as whipping milk produces butter,
    and twisting the nose causes bleeding,
        so also stirring up anger produces contention.

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