¹Like snow in summer and like rain in harvest, so weightiness is not fitting for a fool.

²Like a little bird in fleeing, like a swallow in flying, so a curse for nothing will not come to him.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

⁴Do not answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest you also become like him.

⁵Answer a fool according to his foolishness, lest he become wise in his own eyes.

⁶One who sends words by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

⁷The legs of the lame hang down, and so does a proverb in the mouth of fools.

⁸Like binding a stone in a sling, so is one who gives weightiness to a fool.

⁹A thorn that has gone up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰An archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a fool and one who hires those who pass by.

¹¹Like a dog going back to its own vomit, a fool repeats his foolishness.

¹²Have you seen a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The sluggard says, "A lion is in the road, a lion between the open places."

¹⁴The door turns on its hinge, and the sluggard on his bed.

¹⁵The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wearies him to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven who give back judgment.

¹⁷One who takes hold of the ears of a dog is a passer-by who becomes angry over a dispute that is not his.

¹⁸As a madman who shoots burning missiles, arrows, and death,

¹⁹so is the man who beguiles his neighbor and says, “Was I not joking?”

²⁰With the end of wood the fire goes out, and with no whisperer strife grows quiet.

²¹Charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a man of contention for kindling strife.

²²The words of a whisperer are like things swallowed greedily, and they go down into the inner rooms of the belly.

²³Like silver dross overlaid on earthenware are burning lips and an evil heart.

²⁴With his lips the one who hates makes himself unrecognized, but within him he sets deceit.

²⁵When he makes his voice gracious, do not trust him, for seven abominations are in his heart.

²⁶Hatred covers itself with deception, but his evil is uncovered in the assembly.

²⁷One who digs a pit will fall into it, and one who rolls a stone, it will return to him.

²⁸A tongue of falsehood hates those it has crushed, and a smooth mouth brings stumbling.