Proverbs 26:8-26

⁸Like tying a stone in a sling is giving honor to a fool.

⁹Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰Like an archer who wounds all those around him is one who hires a fool or hires anyone who passes by.

¹¹As a dog returns to his own vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.

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

¹³The lazy person says, “There is a lion on the road! There is a lion between the open places!”

¹⁴As the door turns on its hinges, so is the lazy person upon his bed.

¹⁵The lazy person puts his hand into the dish and yet he has no strength to lift it up to his mouth.

¹⁶The lazy person is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who respond with good judgment.

¹⁷Like one who takes hold of the ears of a dog, is a passerby who becomes angry at a dispute that is not his own.

¹⁸Like a madman who shoots burning arrows,

¹⁹is the one who deceives his neighbor and says, “Was I not telling a joke?”

²⁰For lack of wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no gossiper quarreling ceases.

²¹As charcoal is to burning coals and wood is to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.

²²The words of a gossip are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

²³Like the glaze overlaying an earthen vessel so are burning lips and an evil heart.

²⁴One who hates others disguises his feelings with his lips and he lays up deceit within himself.

²⁵He will speak graciously, but do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.

²⁶Though his hatred is covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.