1 When you sit to eat with a ruler,

consider diligently what is before you;

2 put a knife to your throat

if you are a man given to appetite.

3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties,

since they are deceitful food.

4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich.

In your wisdom, show restraint.

5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not?

For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

6 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye,

and don’t crave his delicacies,

7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is.

"Eat and drink!" he says to you,

but his heart is not with you.

8 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten

and waste your pleasant words.

9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool,

for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone.

Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

11 for their Defender is strong.

He will plead their case against you.

12 Apply your heart to instruction,

and your ears to the words of knowledge.

13 Don’t withhold correction from a child.

If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

14 Punish him with the rod,

and save his soul from Sheol.

15 My son, if your heart is wise,

then my heart will be glad, even mine.

16 Yes, my heart will rejoice

when your lips speak what is right.

17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners,

but rather fear Yahweh all day long.

18 Indeed surely there is a future hope,

and your hope will not be cut off.

19 Listen, my son, and be wise,

and keep your heart on the right path!

20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine,

or those who gorge themselves on meat;

21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor;

and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

22 Listen to your father who gave you life,

and don’t despise your mother when she is old.

23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it.

Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

24 The father of the righteous has great joy.

Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

25 Let your father and your mother be glad!

Let her who bore you rejoice!

26 My son, give me your heart;

and let your eyes keep in my ways.

27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;

and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber,

and increases the unfaithful among men.

29 Who has woe?

Who has sorrow?

Who has strife?

Who has complaints?

Who has needless bruises?

Who has bloodshot eyes?

30 Those who stay long at the wine;

those who go to seek out mixed wine.

31 Don’t look at the wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup,

when it goes down smoothly.

32 In the end, it bites like a snake,

and poisons like a viper.

33 Your eyes will see strange things,

and your mind will imagine confusing things.

34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea,

or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

35 "They hit me, and I was not hurt!

They beat me, and I don’t feel it!

When will I wake up? I can do it again.

I will look for more."

1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Thou considerest diligently that which [is] before thee,

2 And thou hast put a knife to thy throat, If thou [art] a man of appetite.

3 Have no desire to his dainties, seeing it [is] lying food.

4 Labour not to make wealth, From thine own understanding cease, Dost thou cause thine eyes to fly upon it? Then it is not.

5 For wealth maketh to itself wings, As an eagle it flieth to the heavens.

6 Eat not the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his dainties,

7 For as he hath thought in his soul, so [is] he, `Eat and drink,` saith he to thee, And his heart [is] not with thee.

8 Thy morsel thou hast eaten thou dost vomit up, And hast marred thy words that [are] sweet.

9 In the ears of a fool speak not, For he treadeth on the wisdom of thy words.

10 Remove not a border of olden times, And into fields of the fatherless enter not,

11 For their Redeemer [is] strong, He doth plead their cause with thee.

12 Bring in to instruction thy heart, And thine ear to sayings of knowledge.

13 Withhold not from a youth chastisement, When thou smitest him with a rod he dieth not.

14 Thou with a rod smitest him, And his soul from Sheol thou deliverest.

15 My son, if thy heart hath been wise, My heart rejoiceth, even mine,

16 And my reins exult when thy lips speak uprightly.

17 Let not thy heart be envious at sinners, But -- in the fear of Jehovah all the day.

18 For, is there a posterity? Then thy hope is not cut off.

19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And make happy in the way thy heart,

20 Be not thou among quaffers of wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh,

21 For the quaffer and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clotheth with rags.

22 Hearken to thy father, who begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she hath become old.

23 Truth buy, and sell not, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,

24 The father of the righteous rejoiceth greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoiceth in him.

25 Rejoice doth thy father and thy mother, Yea, she that bare thee is joyful.

26 Give, my son, thy heart to me, And let thine eyes watch my ways.

27 For a harlot [is] a deep ditch, And a strange woman [is] a strait pit.

28 She also, as catching prey, lieth in wait, And the treacherous among men she increaseth.

29 Who hath wo? who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? who hath plaint? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?

30 Those tarrying by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.

31 See not wine when it showeth itself red, When it giveth in the cup its colour, It goeth up and down through the upright.

32 Its latter end -- as a serpent it biteth, And as a basilisk it stingeth.

33 Thine eyes see strange women, And thy heart speaketh perverse things.

34 And thou hast been as one lying down in the heart of the sea, And as one lying down on the top of a mast.

35 `They smote me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake -- I seek it yet again!`