1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully 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 deceptive food.

4 Do not overwork to be rich; cease from your own understanding.

5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle into the heavens.

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 The morsel 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 ancient landmarks, and do not enter into the fields of the fatherless;

11 for their Redeemer is mighty; He shall plead their case against you.

12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge.

13 Do not withhold correction from a lad, 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 Sheol.

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 Jehovah all the day long.

18 For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope shall not be cut off.

19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.

20 Do not be among those who are heavy drinkers of wine, or among gluttons for flesh;

21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and slumber shall clothe a man with rags.

22 Listen to your father who begot 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 begets a wise child shall be glad because of 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 take pleasure in observing My ways.

27 For a harlot is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a narrow well.

28 She also lies in wait as for prey, and increases treachery among men.

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

30 Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine.

31 Do not look upon the wine when it is red, when it gives off bubbles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly.

32 In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper.

33 Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will speak perversities.

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, saying:

35 They struck me, but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When I awake, I will ask for more; to do it again.