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UST by section PRO 26:1

⌂ ← PRO 26:1–26:28 → ║ ©

The Book of Proverbs 26

26 Honoring stupid people is just as inappropriate

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

2 When someone curses innocent people,

it is like birds that fly around and do not land on those innocent people.

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

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

4 Sometimes, do not reply to foolish people according to their foolish way of thinking.

If you do, then you also will be foolish.

5 Sometimes, reply to foolish people according to their foolish way of thinking.

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

6 People who send stupid people to tell someone else something on their behalf

harm themselves like someone who cuts off his own feet or drinks what is harmful.

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

so are the sayings that stupid people say.

8 Honoring stupid people is just as useless

as a harmless weapon.

9 As a thistle that pierces the hand of a drunk person hurts that person,

so are the sayings that stupid people say.

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

as someone who injures all the people near him by shooting arrows at them.

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

are like dogs that eat what they have vomited up.

12 Consider this: it is more likely that what stupid people hope for will occur

than what people who wrongly think they are wise hope for.

13 Lazy people do nothing because they claim that there is a lion in the path

or in the midst of the streets.

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 Lazy people wrongly think that they are wiser

than many people who answer discreetly.

17 People who make themselves angry because of something not concerning them that other people are arguing about

are as foolish as people who cause dogs to bite them by pulling their ears when they walk by.

18-19 18-19People who trick people they know

and say that they were just joking are as dangerous

as a crazy person who uses a bow to shoot flaming darks or deadly 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 What people fervently say while thinking evilly is as deceptive as

a clay pot that someone has covered with a shiny coating.

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 prevent others from knowing that they hate you by deceiving them,

everyone will realize how wicked they 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.

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