¹Like snow in summer and rain at harvest,[#26:1 1Sm 12:17]

honour is inappropriate for a fool.

²Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow,[#26:2 Pr 27:8]

an undeserved curse goes nowhere.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,[#26:3 Ps 32:9]

and a rod for the backs of fools.

⁴Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness[#26:4 Pr 23:9; 29:9; Mt 7:6; Lk 23:9]

or you’ll be like him yourself.

⁵Answer a fool according to his foolishness[#26:5 Mt 16:1–4; 21:24–27]

or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.

⁶The one who sends a message by a fool’s hand[#26:6 Pr 10:26; 25:13]

cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

⁷A proverb in the mouth of a fool

is like lame legs that hang limp.

⁸Giving honour to a fool

is like binding a stone in a sling.

⁹A proverb in the mouth of a fool

is like a stick with thorns,

brandished by the hand of a drunkard.

¹⁰The one who hires a fool or who hires those passing by

is like an archer who wounds everyone indiscriminately.

¹¹As a dog returns to its vomit,

so also a fool repeats his foolishness.

¹²Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes?[#26:12 Pr 3:7; 26:5; Rm 12:16]

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The slacker says, ‘There’s a lion in the road –

a lion in the public square! ’

¹⁴A door turns on its hinges,

and a slacker, on his bed.

¹⁵The slacker buries his hand in the bowl;

he is too weary to bring it to his mouth!

¹⁶In his own eyes, a slacker is wiser[#26:16 Pr 26:5,12; 28:11]

than seven who can answer sensibly.

¹⁷A person who is passing by and meddles in a quarrel that’s not his

is like one who grabs a dog by the ears.

¹⁸Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows,[#26:18 Is 50:11]

¹⁹so is the person who deceives his neighbour

and says, ‘I was only joking! ’

²⁰Without wood, fire goes out;

without a gossip, conflict dies down.

²¹As charcoal for embers and wood for fire,

so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.

²²A gossip’s words are like delicacies

that go down to one’s innermost being. ,

²³Smooth lips with an evil heart[#26:23 LXX; MT reads Burning]

are like glaze on an earthen vessel.

²⁴A hateful person disguises himself with his speech

and harbours deceit within.

²⁵When he speaks graciously, don’t believe him,

for there are seven detestable things in his heart.

²⁶Though his hatred is concealed by deception,

his evil will be revealed in the assembly.

²⁷The one who digs a pit will fall into it,

and whoever rolls a stone –

it will come back on him.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it crushes,

and a flattering mouth causes ruin.