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 with a strong desire lustpassion.
3 Do not crave his delicacies for it is deceptive food.
4 Do not exhaust yourself to get rich. Be wise and show restraint.
5 Will you look for things that do not exist? Riches grow wings and fly away like a bird.
6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man nor desire his delicacies.
7 Just as he thinks in his heart: »Eat and drink,« he says to you. But his heart is not with you.
8 You vomit the morsel you eat and waste your complements.
9 Do not speak to a fool for he will despise your wise words.
10 Do not remove the old landmark boundry. And do not enter the field of the fatherless.
11 Their redeemer is mighty. He will plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction discipline, and your ears to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you spank him with a stick he will not die.
14 You will spank him with a stick and deliver him from death.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will also rejoice!
16 Yes, my inmost being rejoices when you speak right things.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but reverence Jehovah all day long.
18 Surely there is a future hope and you will not be disappointed.
19 Listen and be wise, my son, and direct your heart in the way.
20 Do not associate with drunkards or gluttons.
21 For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
22 Listen to your father who gave you life. Do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth and do not sell it. Also buy wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice and he who gives birth to a wise child will receive joy from him.
25 Your father and your mother will be glad. She who bore you will rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep my ways.
27 A prostitute is a deep pit. An adulterous wife is a well of tribulation.
28 She also lies in wait as for a victim, and increases the transgressors among men.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has discord? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who stay long at the wine. They seek mixed wine.
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it shines in the cup, when it goes down 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 and mind will utter perverse things.
34 You will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea; like one who lies on top of a mast.
35 »They struck me but I did not become sick. They beat me and I did not feel it. When will I awake? I will seek drink yet again.«