^[1]  WHEN thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

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^[2]  And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

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^[3]  Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

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^[4]  Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

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^[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.

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^[6]  Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

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^[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.

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^[8]  The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

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^[9]  Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

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^[10]  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

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^[11]  For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

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^[12]  Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

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^[13]  Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

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^[14]  Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

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^[15]  My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

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^[16]  Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

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^[17]  Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

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^[18]  For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

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^[19]  Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

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^[20]  Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

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^[21]  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

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^[22]  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

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^[23]  Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

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^[24]  The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

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^[25]  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

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^[26]  My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

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^[27]  For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

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^[28]  She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

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^[29]  Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

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^[30]  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

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^[31]  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

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^[32]  At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

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^[33]  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

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^[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.

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^[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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