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.