Proverbs 26:2
Good News Translation
Curses cannot hurt you unless you deserve them. They are like birds that fly by and never light.

New Revised Standard Version
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.

Contemporary English Version
A curse you don't deserve will take wings and fly away like a sparrow or a swallow.

New American Bible
Like the sparrow in its flitting, like the swallow in its flight, a curse uncalled-for never lands.

Douay-Rheims Bible
As a bird flying to other places, and a sparrow going here or there: so a curse uttered without cause shall come upon a man.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

As a bird flying to other places, and a sparrow going here or there: so a curse uttered without cause shall come upon a man.

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Numbers 23:8 How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

Deuteronomy 23:4,5 Because they would not meet you with bread and water in the way, when you came out of Egypt: and because they hired against thee Balaam, the son of Beor, from Mesopotamia in Syria, to curse thee. . . .

1 Samuel 14:28,29 And one of the people answering, said: Thy father hath bound the people with an oath, saying: Cursed be the man that shall eat any food this day. (And the people were faint.) . . .

1 Samuel 17:43 And the Philistine said to David: Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with a staff? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

2 Samuel 16:12 Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction, and the Lord may render me good for the cursing of this day.

Nehemiah 13:2 Because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water: and they hired against them Balaam, to curse them, and our God turned the curse into blessing.

Psalm 109:28 They will curse and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.

Context
Similitudes and Instructions
1As snow in summer, and rain in harvest, so glory is not seemly for a fool. 2As a bird flying to other places, and a sparrow going here or there: so a curse uttered without cause shall come upon a man.3A whip for a horse, and a snaffle for an ass, and a rod for the back of fools.…
Cross References
Numbers 23:8
How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

Deuteronomy 23:5
And the Lord thy God would not hear Balaam, and he turned his cursing into thy blessing, because he loved thee.

2 Samuel 16:12
Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction, and the Lord may render me good for the cursing of this day.

Proverbs 27:8
As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that leaveth his place.

Isaiah 16:2
And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon.

Proverbs 26:1
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