| 1 | When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, |
| 2 | and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite. |
| 3 | Do not desire the ruler’s delicacies, for they are deceptive food. |
| 4 | Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. |
| 5 | When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes wings to itself, flying like an eagle toward heaven. |
| 6 | Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delicacies; |
| 7 | for like a hair in the throat, so are they. “Eat and drink!” they say to you; but they do not mean it. |
| 8 | You will vomit up the little you have eaten, and you will waste your pleasant words. |
| 9 | Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, who will only despise the wisdom of your words. |
| 10 | Do not remove an ancient landmark or encroach on the fields of orphans, |
| 11 | for their redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you. |
| 12 | Apply your mind to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. |
| 13 | Do not withhold discipline from your children; if you beat them with a rod, they will not die. |
| 14 | If you beat them with the rod, you will save their lives from Sheol. |
| 15 | My child, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad. |
| 16 | My soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. |
| 17 | Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD. |
| 18 | Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. |
| 19 | Hear, my child, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way. |
| 20 | Do not be among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat; |
| 21 | for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them with rags. |
| 22 | Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. |
| 23 | Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. |
| 24 | The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who begets a wise son will be glad in him. |
| 25 | Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice. |
| 26 | My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. |
| 27 | For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well. |
| 28 | She lies in wait like a robber and increases the number of the faithless. |
| 29 | Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? |
| 30 | Those who linger late over wine, those who keep trying mixed wines. |
| 31 | Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. |
| 32 | At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder. |
| 33 | Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things. |
| 34 | You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. |
| 35 | “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.” |