1: When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what 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 meat. 4: Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. 5: Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. 6: Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: 7: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. 8: The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. 9: Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. 10: Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: 11: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. 12: Apply thine 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 hell. 15: My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. 16: Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17: Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. 18: For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. 19: Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine 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 shall clothe a man 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; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 24: The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. 25: Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. 26: My son, give me thine 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 for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. 29: Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30: They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31: Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32: At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33: Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34: Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35: They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
