Opens the fool run, Proverbs 26:1–12, twelve verses on one subject. The cluster is thematic; each verse stands alone.
Quick answer
Honor given to a fool is weather in the wrong season. The verse says it does not belong, and leaves the damage implied.
Read both lines
Both images are out of place rather than merely unpleasant. Snow in summer and rain at harvest are not disasters in themselves; they are the right thing at the wrong time, and rain during harvest ruins the crop precisely because the crop is ready. So the objection to honoring a fool is not that he is unpleasant company. It is that the honor lands where it cannot be used and spoils what was otherwise going well.
The chapter opens here and will restate it at verse 8, where giving honor to a fool is like binding a stone in a sling. Twelve verses on one figure is unusual even for this book, and the accumulation is the argument.
Related: Proverbs 26:8 · Proverbs 19:10 · Proverbs 26:12
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.