UST PROV Chapter 26

◄ PROV 26 ► ║ ═ ©

26 Honoring foolish people is just as inappropriate

as snow falling in hot summer and rain falling during the time to harvest crops.

2 Just as a bird will fly by and not land on you,

so a curse will not harm you if you are innocent.

3 As people must whip horses and bridle donkeys in order to guide them,

so people must physically punish foolish people in order to guide them.

4 Do not reply to foolish people according to their foolish way of thinking.

If you do, then you also will be foolish.

5 Reply to foolish people according to their foolish way of thinking.

If you do not, then they may think that they are wise.

6 Anyone who asks a foolish person to take a message to someone

is doing something as foolish as cutting off his own feet or drinking poison.

7 As the legs of people who cannot walk are useless,

so are the sayings that foolish people say.

8 Honoring foolish people is just as useless

as a harmless weapon.

9 A drunken person picks up a thorn and it will hurt someone,

in the same way a foolish person says a proverb that can only be harmful.

10 People who employ foolish people or random strangers are as dangerous

as someone who randomly shoots arrows at people.

11 Foolish people who do the same foolish thing over and over again

are like dogs that eat what they have vomited up.

12 Consider this: Foolish people are more likely to learn

than people who wrongly think that they are already wise.

13 Lazy people claim that there is a lion in the path

or in the midst of the streets so that they can stay inside their houses and do nothing.

14 As doors swing on their hinges and do not go anywhere,

so lazy people turn back and forth in their beds.

15 Lazy people put their hands in a dish of food,

but they are so lazy that they will not lift the food to their mouths.

16 A typical lazy person wrongly thinks that he is wiser

than several people who answer intelligently.

17 People who make themselves angry because of an argument that does not concern them

are as foolish as people who grab the ears of a dog that is passing by.

18-19 18-19People who trick others

and then say that they were just joking are as dangerous

as a crazy person who shoots deadly flaming arrows at people.

20 Fires stop burning when they have nothing to burn.

In the same way, people stop arguing when no one is gossiping.

21 As charcoal keeps coals burning and wood keeps fires burning,

so people who always argue keep other people arguing.

22 People are eager to listen to what people who gossip say,

and what they say deeply affects those who hear it.

23 People who fervently say that they are your friend while thinking about doing evil things to you

are as deceptive as a cheap clay pot that someone has made to look like silver.

24 People who hate you will use what they say to hide what they feel,

but they are really thinking about how to betray you.

25 Do not believe those people when they speak kindly to you,

because they are thinking many detestable things.

26 Although those people deceive others by pretending that they do not hate you,

When people gather together, they will discover how wicked those people are.

27 People who dig pits to trap others will fall into those pits instead;

and people who try to crush others with stones will become crushed by those stones instead.

28 Liars hate the people whom they hurt,

and flatterers cause disastrous things to happen.

PROV C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31