| 1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee; |
| 2 | and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. |
| 3 | Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food. |
| 4 | Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence: |
| 5 | wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens. |
| 6 | Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties. |
| 7 | For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee. |
| 8 | Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words. |
| 9 | Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. |
| 10 | Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: |
| 11 | for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee. |
| 12 | Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. |
| 13 | Withhold not correction from the child; for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die: |
| 14 | thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol. |
| 15 | My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine; |
| 16 | and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things. |
| 17 | Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day; |
| 18 | for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off. |
| 19 | Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way. |
| 20 | Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. |
| 21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags. |
| 22 | Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. |
| 23 | Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence. |
| 24 | The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him: |
| 25 | let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice. |
| 26 | My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. |
| 27 | For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. |
| 28 | She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men. |
| 29 | Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes? |
| 30 | -- They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine. |
| 31 | Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly: |
| 32 | at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. |
| 33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things; |
| 34 | and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast: |
| 35 | -- ''They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.'' |