| 1 | When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully 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 deceptive food. | |
| 4 | Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease! | |
| 5 | Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. | |
| 6 | Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; | |
| 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 | The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste 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 ancient landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless; | |
| 11 | For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you. | |
| 12 | Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge. | |
| 13 | Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. | |
| 14 | You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell. | |
| 15 | My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice--indeed, I myself; | |
| 16 | Yes, my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things. | |
| 17 | Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day; | |
| 18 | For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off. | |
| 19 | Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way. | |
| 20 | Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; | |
| 21 | For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. | |
| 22 | Listen to your father who begot 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, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him. | |
| 25 | Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who bore you rejoice. | |
| 26 | My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways. | |
| 27 | For a harlot is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well. | |
| 28 | She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men. | |
| 29 | Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? | |
| 30 | Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine. | |
| 31 | Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; | |
| 32 | At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. | |
| 33 | Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things. | |
| 34 | Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: | |
| 35 | "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?" | |