Why are wisdom and folly depicted as women in Proverbs? Something hit me a while back for you to test against the Word: traditionally a female is pursued, so is wisdom and wickedness–each require deliberate action, so we must consider carefully what we chase; you wouldn’t exactly chase a dude in that way, so any comparison to a male would seem more like a conquering of an enemy rather than a catching of a prize. In Proverbs, one prize kills you, but the other is an eternal treat.
Proverbs 26: answer a fool…don’t answer a fool…what? The Nelson Study Bible summarizes this apparent contradiction: “The phrase according to his folly appears twice as a play on words with two shades of meaning. On the one hand, it means ‘avoid the temptation to stoop to his level’; that is, don’t use his methods, lest you also be like him. On the other hand, it means, ‘avoid the temptation to ignore him altogether’; that is, respond in some way, or else he will become wise in his own eyes and his folly will get worse.”