Proverbs 26:3
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!
BSB
ASV
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, And a rod for the back of fools.
KJV
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back.
The rod is as much needed by fools and as well suited to them, as whips and bridles are for beasts. Answer not--that is, approvingly by like folly.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
1 Corinthians 4:21Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
leads to
I already warned you the second time I was with you. So now in my absence I warn those who sinned earlier and everyone else: If I return, I will not spare anyone,
This is why I write these things while absent, so that when I am present I will not need to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord gave me for…
Through
Psalms 32:9Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding; they must be controlled with bit and bridle to make them come to you.
leads to
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
I have listened and heard; they do not speak what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has pursued his own course like a horse charging into…
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.
Through
Proverbs 19:25Strike a mocker, and the simple will beware; rebuke the discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.
leads to
When a mocker is punished, the simple gain wisdom; and when a wise man is instructed, he acquires knowledge.
