¹ When thou sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently him who 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, since they are deceitful food.

⁴ Weary not thyself to be rich. Out of thine own wisdom, cease.

⁵ Will thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For it certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward heaven.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of an evil eye, nor desire thou his dainties.

⁷ For as he thinks within himself, so is he. Eat and drink, he says to thee, but his heart is not with thee.

⁸ The morsel which thou have eaten thou shall 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 to 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 shall beat him with the rod, and shall 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 to thy father who begot thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth, and do not sell it, yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise son will have joy of him.

²⁵ Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and let her who bore 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 an interloping woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ Yea, she lies in wait as a robber, and increases the treacherous among men.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

³⁰ Those who tarry long at the wine. Those who go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

³² At the end it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.

³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴ Yea, thou shall be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ They have stricken me, thou shall say, and I was not hurt. They have beaten me, and I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.