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¹² Do you see persons wise in their own eyes?
   There is more hope for fools than for them.
¹³ The lazy person says, ‘There is a lion in the road!
   There is a lion in the streets!’
¹⁴ As a door turns on its hinges,
   so does a lazy person in bed.
¹⁵ The lazy person buries a hand in the dish,
   and is too tired to bring it back to the mouth.
¹⁶ The lazy person is wiser in self-esteem
   than seven who can answer discreetly.
¹⁷ Like somebody who takes a passing dog by the ears
   is one who meddles in the quarrel of another.
¹⁸ Like a maniac who shoots deadly firebrands and arrows,
¹⁹ so is one who deceives a neighbour
   and says, ‘I am only joking!’
²⁰ For lack of wood the fire goes out,
   and where there is no whisperer, quarrelling ceases.
²¹ As charcoal is to hot embers and wood to fire,
   so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.
²² The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
   they go down into the inner parts of the body.
²³ Like the glaze^* covering an earthen vessel
   are smooth^* lips with an evil heart.
²⁴ An enemy dissembles in speaking
   while harbouring deceit within;
²⁵ when an enemy speaks graciously, do not believe it,
   for there are seven abominations concealed within;
²⁶ though hatred is covered with guile,
   the enemy’s wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.
²⁷ Whoever digs a pit will fall into it,
   and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.
²⁸ A lying tongue hates its victims,
   and a flattering mouth works ruin.