Proverbs 26:1-21 ▼

1 Like snow in summer and rain at harvest, honor is inappropriate for a fool.

2 Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.

3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.

4 Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself.

5 Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.

6 The one who sends a message by a fool’s hand cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

7 A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like lame legs that hang limp.

8 Giving honor to a fool is like binding a stone in a sling.

9 A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a stick with thorns, brandished by the hand of a drunkard.

10 The one who hires a fool or who hires those passing by is like an archer who wounds everyone.

11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.

12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

13 The slacker says, “There’s a lion in the road— a lion in the public square!”

14 A door turns on its hinges, and a slacker, on his bed.

15 The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he is too weary to bring it to his mouth.

16 In his own eyes, a slacker is wiser than seven men who can answer sensibly.

17 A person who is passing by and meddles in a quarrel that’s not his is like one who grabs a dog by the ears.

18 Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows,

19 so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”

20 Without wood, fire goes out; without a gossip, conflict dies down.

21 As charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.