The Bible Says Commentary on Proverbs 26

Honor given to a fool is as out of place as snow in summer or rain in harvest.

A curse pronounced without cause does not land, the way a sparrow flits past without alighting.

A whip suits the horse, a bridle the donkey, and a rod the back of the fool who refuses gentler correction.

Do not argue like the fool, or you will become like him yourself. Yet the fool must sometimes be answered directly when his self-deception needs correction.

Sending a message by the hand of a fool cripples the sender and brings violence on him.

A proverb in the fool's mouth is as useless as the legs of a lame man, present but unable to function.

Giving honor to a fool ruins the mechanism the way binding a stone permanently into a sling ruins the weapon.

A proverb in a fool's mouth is a thorn in the hand of a drunkard, swung without awareness of what it cuts.

Hiring a fool releases indiscriminate damage like an archer wounding everyone within range.

A fool returning to his folly is like a dog returning to its vomit, repeating what already harmed him.

A man wise in his own eyes is in worse shape than the obvious fool.

The sluggard multiplies excuses, avoids movement, and grows weary even in simple tasks, while still imagining himself wiser than men of sound judgment. His laziness is matched only by his self-deception.

Meddling in another man's quarrel is grabbing a strange dog by the ears.

The man who deceives his neighbor and dismisses it as a joke is compared to a madman hurling firebrands, arrows, and death without aim.

Just as fire dies without wood, contention fades without a whisperer, while the contentious man feeds conflict the way charcoal and wood feed flames.

The whisperer's words are tasty morsels that lodge deep in the listener's interior.

Eloquent lips covering a wicked heart resemble cheap clay glazed with silver dross.

The man who hates uses gracious lips as a disguise while storing deceit in his heart.

Do not believe his gracious speech, for seven abominations are stored in his heart.

His hatred is covered for a time, but his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly.

The man who digs a pit falls into it, and the stone rolled uphill rolls back on the one who pushed it.

A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin on the one flattered and the flatterer.