Thursday 8th December 2022

26Like 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.^*
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^* covering an earthen vessel
   are smooth^* 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.

NRSV