Proverbs 26:2-15

²Like SIM birds that fly by and do not alight/land on anything, if someone curses you, it cannot hurt you if you ◄do not deserve them/have not done to him what is wrong►.

³It is necessary to whip a horse and to put a bridle on a donkey to force them to go where we want them to go, and similarly SIM it is often necessary to strike foolish people with a stick to cause them to do what is right.

⁴If a foolish person asks a foolish question, do not answer him, because if you answer his question, you are just as foolish as he is.

⁵If you give a foolish answer to someone who asks a foolish question, he will realize that he is ◄not very wise/foolish►.

⁶Anyone who asks a foolish person to take a message to someone is himself doing something as foolish as cutting off his own feet or drinking poison.

⁷A lame man cannot use his legs, and similarly SIM it is useless for a foolish person to speak MTY ◄proverbs/wise sayings►.

⁸Tying a stone in a sling so that it cannot be thrown at a target is as foolish as SIM honoring a foolish person.

⁹If a drunk person waves some thorns/brambles with his hand, he is not able to accomplish anything useful by doing that (OR, he does not feel it when a thorn sticks in his hand); similarly, if foolish people speak MTY proverbs, they do not help anyone who hears them.

¹⁰A man who shoots arrows to try to wound everybody who is near is foolish; similarly, anyone who hires a foolish person who passes by is very foolish.

¹¹A foolish person will foolishly do something stupid a second time; it is like SIM a dog returning to eat what it has vomited.

¹²God can help/bless foolish people more easily than he can help/bless people who are not wise RHQ, but think that they are wise.

¹³Lazy people just stay inside their houses and do nothing; they keep saying “ I think there is a lion in the street!”

¹⁴A door continually swings back and forth on its hinges and does not go anywhere; similarly SIM, lazy people just continually turn over in their beds and never do anything.

¹⁵Some people are extremely lazy; they put their hand in a dish to get some food but do not even lift the food up to their mouths.