¹² It speedeth more to meet a female bear, when her whelps be ravished, than a fool trusting to himself in his folly. (It is better to meet a female bear after she hath been robbed of her whelps, than a fool trusting himself in his own foolishness.)

⁹ Speak thou not in the ears of unwise men (Speak thou not in the ears of the unwise); for they shall despise the teaching of thy speech.

⁴ Answer thou not to a fool after his folly, lest thou be made like him.

⁵ Answer thou (to) a fool after his folly, lest he seem to himself to be wise (lest he thinketh himself to be wise).

⁶ (As) An halting man in feet, and drinking wickedness, that is, drink harmful to himself, (is) he that sendeth words by a fond messenger. (Like a person who is lame, and like someone who drinketh a drink that is harmful to himself, is he who sendeth words by a foolish messenger.)

⁷ As an halting man hath fair legs in vain; so a parable is unseemly in the mouth of fools.

⁸ As he that sendeth a stone into the broad place of the sling; so he that giveth honour to an unwise man. (Like he who sendeth a stone into the broad place of a sling, is he who giveth honour to an unwise person.)

⁹ As if a thorn groweth in the hand of a drunken man; so is a parable in the mouth of fools. (Like a thorn that groweth in the hand of a drunk, is a parable in the mouth of a fool.)

¹⁰ Doom determineth causes; and he that setteth silence to a fool, assuageth ires. (Judgement decideth a person’s case; and he who telleth a fool to be silent, lesseneth anger.)

¹¹ As a dog that turneth again to his spewing [As an hound that turneth again to his vomit]; so is an unprudent man, that rehearseth his folly. (Like a dog that returneth to his vomit, is an imprudent person, who repeateth his own foolishness.)

²² Though thou poundedest a fool in a mortar, as with a pestle smiting above dried barley (like pounding dried barley with a pestle), his folly shall not be done away from him.

⁹ If a wise man striveth with a fool, whether he be wroth, or laugh, he shall not find rest.