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 him who has an evil eye, nor desire his 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 ears 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 shall 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 Yea, my heart shall rejoice when your lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners; but be in the fear of the LORD all the 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 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 sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice; and he who fathers a wise child shall have joy from him.

²⁵ Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she who bore you shall 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.