Proverbs 26:12-28
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 Do you see people wise in their own eyes?
There is more hope for fools than for them.(A)
13 The lazy person says, “There is a lion in the road!
There is a lion in the streets!”(B)
14 As a door turns on its hinges,
so does a lazy person in bed.
15 The lazy person buries a hand in the dish
and is too tired to bring it back to the mouth.(C)
16 The lazy person is wiser in self-esteem
than seven who can answer discreetly.
17 Like someone who takes a passing dog by the ears
is one who meddles in the quarrel of another.(D)
18 Like a maniac who shoots deadly firebrands and arrows,(E)
19 so is one who deceives a neighbor
and says, “I am only joking!”(F)
20 For lack of wood the fire goes out,
and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.(G)
21 As charcoal is to hot embers and wood to fire,
so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.(H)
22 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
they go down into the inner parts of the body.(I)
23 Like the glaze[a] covering an earthen vessel
are smooth[b] lips with an evil heart.
24 An enemy dissembles in speaking
while harboring deceit within;(J)
25 when an enemy speaks graciously, do not believe it,
for there are seven abominations concealed within;(K)
26 though hatred is covered with guile,
the enemy’s wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.(L)
27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it,
and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.(M)
28 A lying tongue hates its victims,
and a flattering mouth works ruin.(N)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.