There’s a Lion Outside!

¹²Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!

There is a lion in the streets!”

¹⁴As a door turns on its hinges,

so does a sluggard on his bed.

¹⁵The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;

it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes

than seven men who can answer sensibly.

¹⁷Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own

is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

¹⁸Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death

¹⁹is the man who deceives his neighbor

and says, “I am only joking!”

²⁰For lack of wood the fire goes out,

and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.

²¹As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire,

so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

²²The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;

they go down into the inner parts of the body.

²³Like the glaze2 covering an earthen vessel

are fervent lips with an evil heart.