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1 Like snow in summer and rain at harvest, so honor is unfitting for a fool.
2 Like a sparrow flitting, like a swallow flying, an undeserved curse does not alight.
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.
4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you too become like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
6 Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.
7 Like the legs that hang limp on a lame man is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
8 Like tying a stone in a sling is giving honor to a fool.
9 Like a thorn that goes into a drunkard’s hand is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
10 Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a fool or hires passersby.
11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit, a fool repeats his folly.
12 Do 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 road!
A lion in the squares!”
14 As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.
15 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
he is too weary to bring it back to his mouth.
16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven who can give a sensible answer.
17 Like one who grabs a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel that is not his.
18 Like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows, and death,
19 so is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, “Was I not joking?”
20 Without wood a fire goes out, and without a whisperer strife quiets down.
21 As charcoal is to embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
22 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
they go down into the innermost parts of the body.
23 Burning lips and an evil heart are like silver dross coating an earthen vessel.
24 One who hates disguises it with his lips, but stores up deceit within.
25 When his voice is gracious, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.
26 Though hatred is covered by deception, his evil will be exposed in the assembly.
27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will roll back on the one who rolls it.
28 A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth brings ruin.