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¹ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee:² And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [art] a man given to appetite.³ Be not desirous of his dainties: for they [are] deceitful food.

⁴ Labor not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.⁵ Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not? for [riches] certainly make to themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle towards heaven.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties: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.⁸ The morsel [which] thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

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

¹⁰ Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:¹¹ For their redeemer [is] mighty; he will plead their cause with thee.

¹² Apply thy heart to instruction, and thy ears to the words of knowledge.¹³ Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.¹⁵ My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.¹⁶ Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not thy heart envy sinners: but [be thou] in the fear of the LORD all the day long.¹⁸ For surely there is an end; and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.²⁰ Be not among wine-bibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe [a man] with rags.²² Hearken to thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy 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 that begetteth a wise [child] shall have joy of him.²⁵ Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice.²⁶ My son, give me thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my ways.²⁷ For a lewd woman [is] a deep ditch; and a strange woman [is] a narrow pit.²⁸ She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

²⁹ Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?³⁰ They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.³¹ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, [when] it moveth itself aright.³² At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.³³ Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.³⁴ And 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.³⁵ They have stricken me, [wilt 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.