Proverbs 26 - The Message

Fools Recycle Silliness

¹ We no more give honors to fools than pray for snow in summer or rain during harvest.

² You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow.

³ A whip for the racehorse, a tiller for the sailboat— and a stick for the back of fools!

⁴ Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool; you’ll only look foolish yourself.

⁵ Answer a fool in simple terms so he doesn’t get a swelled head.

⁶ You’re only asking for trouble when you send a message by a fool.

⁷ A proverb quoted by fools is limp as a wet noodle.

⁸ Putting a fool in a place of honor is like setting a mud brick on a marble column.

⁹ To ask a moron to quote a proverb is like putting a scalpel in the hands of a drunk.

¹⁰ Hire a fool or a drunk and you shoot yourself in the foot.

¹¹ As a dog eats its own vomit, so fools recycle silliness.

¹² See that man who thinks he’s so smart? You can expect far more from a fool than from him.

¹³ Loafers say, “It’s dangerous out there! Tigers are prowling the streets!” and then pull the covers back over their heads.

¹⁴ Just as a door turns on its hinges, so a lazybones turns back over in bed.

¹⁵ A shiftless sluggard puts his fork in the pie, but is too lazy to lift it to his mouth.

Like Glaze on Cracked Pottery

¹⁶ Dreamers fantasize their self-importance; they think they are smarter than a whole college faculty.

¹⁷ You grab a mad dog by the ears when you butt into a quarrel that’s none of your business.

^18-19 People who shrug off deliberate deceptions, saying, “I didn’t mean it, I was only joking,” Are worse than careless campers who walk away from smoldering campfires.

²⁰ When you run out of wood, the fire goes out; when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.

²¹ A quarrelsome person in a dispute is like kerosene thrown on a fire.

²² Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you want junk like that in your belly?

²³ Smooth talk from an evil heart is like glaze on cracked pottery.

^24-26 Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend, all the while plotting against you. When he speaks warmly to you, don’t believe him for a minute; he’s just waiting for the chance to rip you off. No matter how shrewdly he conceals his malice, eventually his evil will be exposed in public.

²⁷ Malice backfires; spite boomerangs.

²⁸ Liars hate their victims; flatterers sabotage trust.