3. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.
4. Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself.
5. Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.
6. The one who sends a message by a fool’s hand cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.
7. A proverb in the mouth of a foolis like lame legs that hang limp.
8. Giving honor to a foolis like binding a stone in a sling.
9. A proverb in the mouth of a foolis like a stick with thorns,brandished by the hand of a drunkard.
10. The one who hires a fool or who hires those passing byis like an archer who wounds everyone.
11. As a dog returns to its vomit,so a fool repeats his foolishness.
12. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
13. The slacker says, “There’s a lion in the road —a lion in the public square! ”
14. A door turns on its hinges,and a slacker, on his bed.
15. The slacker buries his hand in the bowl;he is too weary to bring it to his mouth.
16. In his own eyes, a slacker is wiser than seven men who can answer sensibly.
17. A person who is passing by and meddles in a quarrel that’s not hisis like one who grabs a dog by the ears.
18. Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows,
19. so is the man who deceives his neighborand says, “I was only joking! ”
20. Without wood, fire goes out;without a gossip, conflict dies down.
21. As charcoal for embers and wood for fire,so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
22. A gossip’s words are like choice foodthat goes down to one’s innermost being.