---
title: "Proverbs 26 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/proverbs/26/
description: "Proverbs 26, all 28 verses, in the Catholic Public Domain Version with the Latin Vulgate, plus Bp. Challoner’s notes."
---

# Proverbs 26

Proverbs 26 is chapter 26 of 31 in the Book of Proverbs. Here are all 28 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

## Proverbs 26 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. In the manner of snow in the summer, and rain at the harvest, so also is glory unfit for the foolish.
2. Like a bird flying away to another place, and like a sparrow that hurries away freely, so also a curse uttered against someone without cause will pass away.
3. A whip is for a horse, and a muzzle is for donkey, and a rod is for the back of the imprudent.
4. Do not respond to the foolish according to his folly, lest you become like him.
5. Respond to the foolish according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise.
6. Whoever sends words by a foolish messenger has lame feet and drinks iniquity.
7. In the manner of a lame man who has beautiful legs to no purpose, so also is a parable unfit for the mouth of the foolish.
8. Just like one who casts a stone into the pile of Mercury, so also is he who gives honor to the foolish.
9. In the manner of a thorn, if it were to spring up from the hand of a drunkard, so also is a parable in the mouth of the foolish.
10. Judgment determines cases. And whoever imposes silence on the foolish mitigates anger.
11. Like a dog that returns to his vomit, so also is the imprudent who repeats his foolishness.
12. Have you seen a man who seems wise to himself? There will be greater hope held for the unwise than for him.
13. The lazy one says, “There is a lion along the way, and a lioness in the roads.”
14. Just as a door turns upon its hinges, so also does the lazy one turn upon his bed.
15. The lazy one conceals his hand under his arms, and it is a labor for him to move it to his mouth.
16. The lazy one seems wiser to himself than seven men speaking judgments.
17. Just like one who takes hold of a dog by the ears, so also is he who crosses impatiently and meddles in the quarrels of another.
18. Just as he is guilty who let loose the arrows and the lances unto death,
19. so also is the man who harms his friend by deceitfulness. And when he has been apprehended, he says, “I did it jokingly.”
20. When the wood fails, the fire will be extinguished. And when the gossiper is taken away, conflicts will be quelled.
21. Just as charcoals are to burning coals, and wood is to fire, so also is an angry man who stirs up quarrels.
22. The words of a whisperer seem simple, but they penetrate to the innermost parts of the self.
23. In the same manner as an earthen vessel, if it were adorned with impure silver, conceited lips are allied with a wicked heart.
24. An enemy is known by his lips, though it is from his heart that he draws out deceit.
25. When he will have lowered his voice, do not believe him, for there are seven vices in his heart.
26. Whoever covers hatred with deceit, his malice shall be revealed in the assembly.
27. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. And whoever rolls a stone, it will roll back to him.
28. A false tongue does not love truth. And a slippery mouth works ruin.

## Proverbs 26 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Quomodo nix in æstate, et pluviæ in messe, sic indecens est stulto gloria.
2. Sicut avis ad alia transvolans, et passer quolibet vadens, sic maledictum frustra prolatum in quempiam superveniet.
3. Flagellum equo, et camus asino, et virga in dorso imprudentium.
4. Ne respondeas stulto juxta stultitiam suam, ne efficiaris ei similis.
5. Responde stulto juxta stultitiam suam, ne sibi sapiens esse videatur.
6. Claudus pedibus, et iniquitatem bibens, qui mittit verba per nuntium stultum.
7. Quomodo pulchras frustra habet claudus tibias, sic indecens est in ore stultorum parabola.
8. Sicut qui mittit lapidem in acervum Mercurii, ita qui tribuit insipienti honorem.
9. Quomodo si spina nascatur in manu temulenti, sic parabola in ore stultorum.
10. Judicium determinat causas, et qui imponit stulto silentium iras mitigat.
11. Sicut canis qui revertitur ad vomitum suum, sic imprudens qui iterat stultitiam suam.
12. Vidisti hominem sapientem sibi videri? magis illo spem habebit insipiens.
13. Dicit piger: Leo est in via, et leæna in itineribus.
14. Sicut ostium vertitur in cardine suo, ita piger in lectulo suo.
15. Abscondit piger manum sub ascella sua, et laborat si ad os suum eam converterit.
16. Sapientior sibi piger videtur septem viris loquentibus sententias.
17. Sicut qui apprehendit auribus canem, sic qui transit impatiens et commiscetur rixæ alterius.
18. Sicut noxius est qui mittit sagittas et lanceas in mortem,
19. ita vir fraudulenter nocet amico suo, et cum fuerit deprehensus dicit: Ludens feci.
20. Cum defecerint ligna extinguetur ignis, et susurrone subtracto, jurgia conquiescent.
21. Sicut carbones ad prunas, et ligna ad ignem, sic homo iracundus suscitat rixas.
22. Verba susurronis quasi simplicia, et ipsa perveniunt ad intima ventris.
23. Quomodo si argento sordido ornare velis vas fictile, sic labia tumentia cum pessimo corde sociata.
24. Labiis suis intelligitur inimicus, cum in corde tractaverit dolos.
25. Quando submiserit vocem suam, ne credideris ei, quoniam septem nequitiæ sunt in corde illius.
26. Qui operit odium fraudulenter, revelabitur malitia ejus in consilio.
27. Qui fodit foveam incidet in eam, et qui volvit lapidem revertetur ad eum.
28. Lingua fallax non amat veritatem, et os lubricum operatur ruinas.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 2: The meaning is, that a curse uttered without cause shall do no harm to the person that is cursed, but will return upon him that curseth, as whithersoever a bird flies, it returns to its own nest.
- Verse 4: Viz., so as to imitate him but only so as to reprove his folly.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).