| 1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that 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; Seeing they are deceitful food. |
| 4 | Weary not thyself 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, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven. |
| 6 | Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties: |
| 7 | For as he thinketh within himself, 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 hearing of a fool; 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 strong; 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 beat him with the rod, he will 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 will be glad, even mine: |
| 16 | Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things. |
| 17 | Let not thy heart envy sinners; But [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day long: |
| 18 | For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off. |
| 19 | Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way. |
| 20 | Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh: |
| 21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will 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; [Yea], wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. |
| 24 | The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him. |
| 25 | Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice. |
| 26 | My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways. |
| 27 | For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit. |
| 28 | Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men. |
| 29 | Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? |
| 30 | They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine. |
| 31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly: |
| 32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder. |
| 33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy 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 hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. |
