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.''
