 1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, look carefully at what is before you; 2 and put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite. 3 Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceitful food. 4 Do not labor to be rich. Cease from your own understanding. 5 Will your eyes fly on it? And it is gone. For surely it makes wings for itself. It flies into the heavens like an eagle. 6 Do not eat the bread of one who has an evil eye nor desire their dainty foods; 7 for as he thinks in his heart, so is he; Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. 8 Your bit which you have eaten, you shall vomit up, and spoil your pleasant words. 9 Do not speak in the hearing+ of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. 10 Do not remove the old landmarks and do not enter into the fields of the fatherless, 11 For their redeemer is mighty. He will plead their cause with you. 12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge. 13 Do not withhold correction from a boy, for if you beat him with the rod, he will not die. 14 You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell. 15 My son, if your heart is wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. 16 Yes, my heart shall rejoice when your lips speak right things. 17 Do not let your heart envy sinners. But fear the Lord all day long. 18 For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope shall not be cut off. 19 My son, hear and be wise and guide your heart in the right way. 20 Do not be among those who drink much wine, among gluttons for flesh for themselves, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton lose all, and sleepiness shall clothe a man with rags. 22 Listen to your father who sired you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. 23 Buy the truth and do not sell it. Also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice. Those who father a wise child will have joy from them. 25 Your father and your mother will be glad, and she who bore you will rejoice. 26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes watch my ways. 27 For a harlot is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit. 28 She also lies in wait as for prey, and increases the treacherous among men. 29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has fighting? Who has babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who stay long at the wine, those who go to seek mixed wine. 31 Do not look upon the wine when it is red, when it gives its color in the cup, when it goes down smoothly 32 At the last it bites like an asp and stings like an adder. 33 Your eyes shall look upon strange women and your heart shall speak perverse things. 34 Yes, you shall be as one who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as one who lies upon the top of a mast, 35 saying, They struck me; I was not sick. They beat me, but I did not know it. When I awaken, I will add more. I will seek it again.
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