1When you sit down to eat with a ruler,consider carefully what is before you,
2and put a knife to your throatif you possess a large appetite.
3Do not crave that ruler’s delicacies,for that food is deceptive.
4Do not wear yourself out to become rich;be wise enough to restrain yourself.
5When you gaze upon riches, they are gone,for they surely make wings for themselves,and fly off into the sky like an eagle!
6Do not eat the food of a stingy person,do not crave his delicacies;
7for he is like someone calculating the cost in his mind.“Eat and drink,” he says to you,but his heart is not with you;
8you will vomit up the little bit you have eaten,and will have wasted your pleasant words.
9Do not speak in the ears of a fool,for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10Do not move an ancient boundary stone,or take over the fields of the fatherless,
11for their Protector is strong;he will plead their case against you.
12Apply your heart to instructionand your ears to the words of knowledge.
13Do not withhold discipline from a child;even if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
14If you strike him with the rod,you will deliver him from death.
15My child, if your heart is wise,then my heart also will be glad;
16my soul will rejoicewhen your lips speak what is right.
17Do not let your heart envy sinners,but rather be zealous in fearing the Lord all the time.
18For surely there is a future,and your hope will not be cut off.
19Listen, my child, and be wise,and guide your heart on the right way.
20Do not spend time among drunkards,among those who eat too much meat,
21because drunkards and gluttons become impoverished,and drowsiness clothes them with rags.
22Listen to your father who begot you,and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23Acquire truth and do not sell it –wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.
24The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly;whoever fathers a wise child will have joy in him.
25May your father and your mother have joy;may she who bore you rejoice.
26Give me your heart, my son,and let your eyes observe my ways;
27for a prostitute is like a deep pit;a harlot is like a narrow well.
28Indeed, she lies in wait like a robber,and increases the unfaithful among men.
29Who has woe? Who has sorrow?Who has contentions? Who has complaints?Who has wounds without cause? Who has dullness of the eyes?
30Those who linger over wine,those who go looking for mixed wine.
31Do not look on the wine when it is red,when it sparkles in the cup,when it goes down smoothly.
32Afterward it bites like a snake,and stings like a viper.
33Your eyes will see strange things,and your mind will speak perverse things.
34And you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging.
35You will say, “They have struck me, but I am not harmed!They beat me, but I did not know it!When will I awake? I will look for another drink.”