Proverbs 26

¹ Like snow in summer, or rain in harvest, honor for a fool is out of place.

² Like the sparrow in its flitting, like the swallow in its flight, a curse uncalled-for arrives nowhere.

³ The whip for the horse, the bridle for the ass, and the rod for the back of fools.

⁴ Answer not the fool according to his folly, lest you too become like him.

⁵ Answer the fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.

⁶ He cuts off his feet, he drinks down violence, who sends messages by a fool.

⁷ A proverb in the mouth of a fool hangs limp, like crippled legs.

⁸ Like one who entangles the stone in the sling is he who gives honor to a fool.

⁹ Like a thorn stick brandished by the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰ Like an archer wounding all who pass by is he who hires a drunken fool.

¹¹ As the dog returns to his vomit, so the fool repeats his folly.

¹² You see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³ The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the street, a lion in the middle of the square!"

¹⁴ The door turns on its hinges, the sluggard, on his bed!

¹⁵ The sluggard loses his hand in the dish; he is too weary to lift it to his mouth.

¹⁶ The sluggard imagines himself wiser than seven men who answer with good sense.

¹⁷ Like the man who seizes a passing dog by the ears is he who meddles in a quarrel not his own.

¹⁸ Like a crazed archer scattering firebrands and deadly arrows

¹⁹ Is the man who deceives his neighbor, and then says, "I was only joking."

²⁰ For lack of wood, the fire dies out; and when there is no talebearer, strife subsides.

²¹ What a bellows is to live coals, what wood is to fire, such is a contentious man in enkindling strife.

²² The words of a talebearer are like dainty morsels that sink into one's inmost being.

²³ Like a glazed finish on earthenware are smooth lips with a wicked heart.

²⁴ With his lips an enemy pretends, but in his inmost being he maintains deceit;

²⁵ When he speaks graciously, trust him not, for seven abominations are in his heart.

²⁶ A man may conceal hatred under dissimulation, but his malice will be revealed in the assembly.

²⁷ He who digs a pit falls into it; and a stone comes back upon him who rolls it.

²⁸ The lying tongue is its owner's enemy, and the flattering mouth works ruin.