12A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.

The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

13Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt.

Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.*

14A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning

will be taken as a curse!

15A quarrelsome wife is as annoying

as constant dripping on a rainy day.

16Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind

or trying to hold something with greased hands.

17As iron sharpens iron,

so a friend sharpens a friend.

18As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit,

so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.

19As a face is reflected in water,

so the heart reflects the real person.

20Just as Death and Destruction* are never satisfied,

so human desire is never satisfied.

21Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,

but a person is tested by being praised.*

22You cannot separate fools from their foolishness,

even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.