Proverbs 26:3 · KJV
“A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.”
— Proverbs 26:3
As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Proverbs 26 — Context
As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool.
2As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
3A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.
4Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
5Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. {conceit: Heb. eyes}
Cross References
Proverbs 10:13
In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod {is} for the back of him that is void of understanding. {of understanding: Heb. of heart}
Psalms 32:9
Be ye not as the horse, {or} as the mule, {which} have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
1 Corinthians 4:21
What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and {in} the spirit of meekness?
Proverbs 19:29
Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.
Judges 8:5-7
And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they {be} faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.
Proverbs 27:22
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, {yet} will not his foolishness depart from him.
2 Corinthians 13:2
I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
Proverbs 17:10
A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool. {entereth...: or, aweth more a wise man, than to strike a fool an hundred times}