¹ When you sit to eat with a ruler, you shall surely observe what is before you,

² and you shall put a knife to your throat if you have a ⌞big appetite⌟.¹

1. Literally “lord/master of life”

³ Do not desire his delicacies, for¹ it is food of deception.

1. Hebrew “and”

⁴ Do not tire in order to become rich; out of your understanding, may you desist.

⁵ Your eyes will ⌞alight⌟¹ on it, but there is nothing to it, for suddenly it will make for itself wings like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.

1. Literally “cause to fly”

⁶ Do not eat the bread of ⌞the stingy⌟,¹ and do not desire his delicacies.

1. Literally “stingy of eye”

⁷ For, like hair in his ⌞throat⌟,¹ so it is.² “Eat and drink!” he will say to you, but his heart will not be with you.

1. Literally “soul,” or “inner self”
2. Or “is he”

⁸ Your morsel you have eaten, you will vomit it up, and you will waste your pleasant words.

⁹ In the ears of a fool do not speak, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Do not remove an ancient boundary marker, and on the fields of orphans do not encroach;

¹¹ For their redeemer is strong, he himself will plead their cause against you.

¹² Apply your heart¹ to instruction, and your ear to sayings of knowledge.

1. Or “mind”

¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child, if you will beat him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴ As for you, with the rod you shall beat him, and his life¹ you will save from Sheol.²

1. Or “soul,” or “inner self”
2. A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld

¹⁵ My child, if your heart¹ is wise, my heart will be glad—even me!

1. Or “mind”

¹⁶ And my ⌞insides⌟¹ will rejoice when your lips speak what is upright.

1. Literally “kidneys”

¹⁷ May your heart¹ not envy the sinners, but live in fear of Yahweh ⌞all day⌟.²

1. Or “mind”
2. Literally “all the day”

¹⁸ ⌞Surely⌟¹ there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

1. Literally “For if”

¹⁹ You, my child, hear and be wise, and direct your heart¹ on the road.

1. Or “mind”

²⁰ Do not be among drinkers of wine, among gluttonous eaters of ⌞their meat⌟.¹

1. Literally “meat for them”

²¹ For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor, and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.

²² Listen to your father—he who ⌞gave you life⌟,¹ and do not despise your mother when² she is old.

1. Literally “caused you to be born”
2. Or “for, because”

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

²⁴ The father of the righteous will surely rejoice; he who bears a wise person will be happy with him.

²⁵ May your father and your mother be glad, and may she who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My child, may you give your heart¹ to me, and may your eyes delight in my ways.

1. Or “mind”

²⁷ For a deep pit is a prostitute,¹ and a narrow well is ⌞an adulteress⌟.²

1. Or “whore”
2. Literally “a foreign woman”

²⁸ She is also like a robber lying in wait, and the faithless among mankind she increases.

²⁹ To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint? To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?

³⁰ To those who linger over wine, to those who come to try mixed wine.

³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red, when it ⌞sparkles⌟¹ on the cup, going down smoothly.

1. Literally “gives its eye”

³² ⌞In the end⌟,¹ it will bite like a serpent, and it will sting like an adder.

1. Literally “end him”

³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart¹ will speak perverse things.

1. Or “mind”

³⁴ And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea, and like him who lies down on top of a mast.

³⁵ “They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it. When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”