| 1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what 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: for they are deceitful meat. |
| 4 | Labour not 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; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. |
| 6 | Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: |
| 7 | For as he thinketh in his heart, 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 ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. |
| 10 | Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: |
| 11 | For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. |
| 12 | Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. |
| 13 | Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. |
| 14 | Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. |
| 15 | My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. |
| 16 | Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. |
| 17 | Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. |
| 18 | For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. |
| 19 | Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. |
| 20 | Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: |
| 21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall 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; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. |
| 24 | The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. |
| 25 | Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. |
| 26 | My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. |
| 27 | For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. |
| 28 | She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. |
| 29 | Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? |
| 30 | They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. |
| 31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. |
| 32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. |
| 33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine 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 sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
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Public Domain