Lectionary Calendar
Friday, April 25th, 2025
Friday in Easter Week
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

King James Version

Proverbs 26:3

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ass (Donkey);   Bridle;   Fool;   Punishment;   Whip;   Thompson Chain Reference - Bridle;   Correction;   Rod;   Whips;   The Topic Concordance - Chastisement;   Foolishness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Ass, the Domestic;   Horse, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Fool, Foolishness, Folly;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bit;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Bit, Bridle;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Horse;   Proverbs, Book of;   Rod;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Horse;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Whip;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bit and Bridle;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bridle;   Cruelty;   Folly and Fool;   Horse;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,and a rod for the backs of fools.
Hebrew Names Version
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools!
English Standard Version
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
New American Standard Bible
A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools.
New Century Version
Whips are for horses, and harnesses are for donkeys, so paddles are good for fools.
Amplified Bible
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the backs of fools [who refuse to learn].
World English Bible
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools!
Geneva Bible (1587)
Vnto the horse belongeth a whip, to the asse a bridle, and a rod to the fooles backe.
Legacy Standard Bible
A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,And a rod for the back of fools.
Berean Standard Bible
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!
Contemporary English Version
Horses and donkeys must be beaten and bridled— and so must fools.
Complete Jewish Bible
A whip for a horse, a bridle for a donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
Darby Translation
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
Easy-to-Read Version
You have to whip a horse, you have to put a bridle on a mule, and you have to beat a fool.
George Lamsa Translation
A whip for the horse, a goad for the ass, and a rod for the back of a fool.
Good News Translation
You have to whip a horse, you have to bridle a donkey, and you have to beat a fool.
Lexham English Bible
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
Literal Translation
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Vnto the horse belongeth a whyppe, to the Asse a brydle, and a rodde to the fooles backe.
American Standard Version
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, And a rod for the back of fools.
Bible in Basic English
A whip for the horse, a mouth-bit for the ass, and a rod for the back of the foolish.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
King James Version (1611)
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the asse; and a rod for the fooles backe.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Unto the horse belongeth a whip, to the asse a brydle: and a rod to the fooles backe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Give not thy wealth to women, nor thy mind and living to remorse. Do all things with counsel: drink wine with counsel.
English Revised Version
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Beting to an hors, and a bernacle to an asse; and a yerde in the bak of vnprudent men.
Update Bible Version
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools.
Webster's Bible Translation
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.
New English Translation
A whip for the horse and a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!
New King James Version
A whip for the horse, A bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the fool's back.
New Living Translation
Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle, and a fool with a rod to his back!
New Life Bible
A whip is for the horse, leather ropes are for the donkey, and a stick is for the back of fools.
New Revised Standard
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
A whip for the horse, a bridle a for the ass, and a rod for the back of dullards.
Douay-Rheims Bible
A whip for a horse, and a snaffle for an ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
Revised Standard Version
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
Young's Literal Translation
A whip is for a horse, a bridle for an ass, And a rod for the back of fools.
THE MESSAGE
A whip for the racehorse, a tiller for the sailboat— and a stick for the back of fools!
New American Standard Bible (1995)
A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools.

Contextual Overview

3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

According to our notions, we should rather say, a bridle for the horse, and a whip for the ass; but it should be considered, that the Eastern asses are not only much more beautiful, but better goers that ours; and being active and well broken, they need only a bridle to guide them; whereas their horses being scarce, and often caught wild, and badly broken, are much less manageable, and need the correction of the whip. Proverbs 10:13, Proverbs 17:10, Proverbs 19:25, Proverbs 27:22, Judges 8:5-7, Psalms 32:9, 1 Corinthians 4:21, 2 Corinthians 10:6, 2 Corinthians 13:2

Reciprocal: Proverbs 19:29 - and Proverbs 26:1 - so Proverbs 29:19 - servant Isaiah 30:28 - a bridle Jeremiah 31:18 - as a

Cross-References

Genesis 12:7
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord , who appeared unto him.
Genesis 13:15
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Genesis 13:17
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
Genesis 15:18
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Genesis 17:8
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Genesis 20:1
And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Genesis 26:1
And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
Genesis 26:2
And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
Genesis 26:6
And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
Genesis 26:12
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

A whip for the horse,.... One that is dull of going, or refractory and wants breaking;

a bridle for the ass; not to curb and restrain it from going too fist, asses being generally dull; but to direct its way and turn it when necessary, it being stiffnecked and obstinate; though the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it a "spear" or "goad", something to prick with, and excite it to motion; and so the Targum; or otherwise one would have thought the whip was fitter for the ass and the bridle for the horse;

and a rod for the fool's back; suggesting that the fool, or wicked man, is like the horse or the mule; though not without understanding of things natural, yet of things divine and moral; and as stupid as the ass, however wise he may conceit himself to be, being born like a wild ass's colt; and instead of honour being given him, stripes should be laid upon him; he should be reproved sharply, and corrected for his wickedness, especially the causeless curser, Proverbs 19:29.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 26:3. A whip for the horse — Correction is as suitable to a fool, as a whip is for a horse, or a bridle for an ass.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile