26 Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,
    so honour is not fitting for a fool.
² Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying,
    an undeserved curse goes nowhere.
³ A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
    and a rod for the back of fools.
⁴ Do not answer fools according to their folly,
    or you will be a fool yourself.
⁵ Answer fools according to their folly,
    or they will be wise in their own eyes.
⁶ It is like cutting off one’s foot and drinking down violence,
    to send a message by a fool.
⁷ The legs of a disabled person hang limp;
    so does a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
⁸ It is like binding a stone in a sling
    to give honour to a fool.
⁹ Like a thornbush brandished by the hand of a drunkard
    is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
¹⁰ Like an archer who wounds everybody
    is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.^[a]
11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit
    is a fool who reverts to his folly.
¹² Do you see persons wise in their own eyes?
    There is more hope for fools than for them.
¹³ The lazy person says, ‘There is a lion in the road!
    There is a lion in the streets!’
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.
¹⁶ The lazy person is wiser in self-esteem
    than seven who can answer discreetly.
¹⁷ Like somebody who takes a passing dog by the ears
    is one who meddles in the quarrel of another.
¹⁸ Like a maniac who shoots deadly firebrands and arrows,
¹⁹ so is one who deceives a neighbour
    and says, ‘I am only joking!’
²⁰ For lack of wood the fire goes out,
    and where there is no whisperer, quarrelling ceases.
²¹ As charcoal is to hot embers and wood to fire,
    so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.
²² The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
    they go down into the inner parts of the body.
²³ Like the glaze^[b] covering an earthen vessel
    are smooth^[c] lips with an evil heart.
²⁴ An enemy dissembles in speaking
    while harbouring deceit within;
²⁵ when an enemy speaks graciously, do not believe it,
    for there are seven abominations concealed within;
²⁶ though hatred is covered with guile,
    the enemy’s wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.
²⁷ Whoever digs a pit will fall into it,
    and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.
²⁸ A lying tongue hates its victims,
    and a flattering mouth works ruin.