| [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. |