Similitudes and Instructions

The opening sayings insist that honor does not fit a fool, empty curses do not land without cause, and fools often require blunt restraint rather than prestige. The chapter then gives paired guidance about answering folly with discernment, exposes the uselessness of proverbs in a fool's mouth, and climaxes by saying a fool's repetition of folly is terrible but self-wise pride is worse still.

L¹ike snow in summer and rain at harvest, ²Like a fluttering sparrow or darting swallow, ³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, ⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, ⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, ⁶Like cutting off one’s own feet or drinking violence ⁷Like lame legs hanging limp ⁸Like binding a stone into a sling ⁹Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard ¹⁰Like an archer who wounds at random ¹¹As a dog returns to its vomit, ¹²Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

The slacker invents dangers to avoid action, turns in bed without progress like a door on hinges, and finds even the effort of eating too burdensome. Yet he still sees himself as wiser than many sensible men, showing that laziness is bound up with delusion as much as inactivity.

¹³The slacker says, “A lion is in the road! ¹⁴As a door turns on its hinges, ¹⁵The slacker buries his hand in the dish; ¹⁶The slacker is wiser in his own eyes

The chapter next warns against seizing another person's quarrel, comparing it to grabbing a dog by the ears, and likens reckless deception disguised as joking to a madman hurling deadly weapons. It then shows how gossip and contentious people keep conflict burning, since where fuel and whispering cease, strife dies down.

¹⁷Like one who grabs a dog by the ears ¹⁸Like a madman shooting firebrands ¹⁹so is the man who deceives his neighbor ²⁰Without wood, a fire goes out; ²¹Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, ²²The words of a gossip are like choice morsels

A final cluster unmasks warm words that conceal hatred, comparing them to glaze covering cheap pottery. Though malice may hide itself for a time, it will eventually be exposed; the one who digs a pit falls into it, and lying, flattering speech is revealed as hatred working ruin.

²³Like glaze covering an earthen vessel ²⁴A hateful man disguises himself with his speech, ²⁵When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, ²⁶Though his hatred is concealed by deception, ²⁷He who digs a pit will fall into it, ²⁸A lying tongue hates those it crushes,