²¹ And they keep silent, and have not answered him a word, for a command of the king is, saying, `Do not answer him.'

⁴ Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou be like to him -- even thou.

²⁶ And Eliakim son of Hilkiah saith -- and Shebna, and Joah -- to the chief of the butlers, `Speak, we pray thee, unto thy servants `in' Aramaean, for we are understanding, and do not speak with us `in' Jewish, in the ears of the people who `are' on the wall.'

³⁷ And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who `is' over the house, cometh in, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the remembrancer, unto Hezekiah, with rent garments, and they declare to him the words of the chief of the butlers.

¹³ And I, as deaf, hear not. And as a dumb one who openeth not his mouth.

¹⁴ Yea, I am as a man who heareth not, And in his mouth are no reproofs.

¹⁵ Because for Thee, O Jehovah, I have waited, Thou dost answer, O Lord my God.

¹ To the Overseer, to Jeduthun. -- A Psalm of David. I have said, `I observe my ways, Against sinning with my tongue, I keep for my mouth a curb, while the wicked `is' before me.'

⁷ The instructor of a scorner Is receiving for it -- shame, And a reprover of the wicked -- his blemish.

⁸ Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee, Give reproof to the wise, and he loveth thee.

¹³ Therefore is the wise at that time silent, For an evil time it `is'.

⁶ `Ye may not give that which is `holy' to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine, that they may not trample them among their feet, and having turned -- may rend you.