| 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. |