¹When you sit to dine with a ruler,

consider diligently what is before you,

²and put a knife to your throat

if you be a man given to gluttony.

³Be not desirous of his delicacies,[#Ps 141:4; Pr 23:6]

for they are deceitful food.

⁴Toil not to acquire wealth;[#Pr 28:20]

cease from your own understanding.

⁵Will you let your eyes fly after that which is not?

For such wealth certainly sprouts wings,

flying away like an eagle to the heavens.

⁶Eat not the bread of him who has an evil eye,[#Dt 15:9]

nor desire his delicacies,

⁷for as he thinks in his heart,

so is he.

“Eat and drink!” he says to you,

but his heart is not with you.

⁸The morsel which you have eaten, you will vomit up,

and lose your pleasant words.

⁹Speak not in the hearing of a fool,

for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Remove not the ancient landmark,[#Dt 19:14; Pr 22:28]

nor enter the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong;[#Job 19:25]

He will plead their cause against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction,

and your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Withhold not discipline from a child;

if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴You will strike him with the rod,

and save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise,

my heart will indeed rejoice.

¹⁶My soul will exult

when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Let not your heart envy sinners,[#Pr 24:1]

but be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸Surely there is a future,

and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Hear, my son, and be wise,

and direct your heart in the way.

²⁰Be not among winebibbers,[#Isa 5:22; Ro 13:13]

or among gluttonous eaters of meat,

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,[#Dt 21:20; Pr 21:17]

and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.

²²Listen to your father who begot you,

and despise not your mother when she is old.

²³Buy truth, and sell it not;[#Mt 13:44]

also wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴The father of a righteous son will rejoice greatly,

and he who begets a wise son will delight in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad;

let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶My son, give me your heart,

and let your eyes delight in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit;

and an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸She lies in wait like a road bandit,[#Pr 7:12; Ecc 7:26]

and increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaints?

Who has wounds without cause? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who linger long over the wine,

those who turn in to try mixed wine.

³¹Stare not into the wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup,

when it goes down smoothly.

³²In the end it bites like a serpent,

and stings like a viper.

³³Your eyes will behold strange women,

and your heart will utter perverse things.

³⁴You will be as he who lies down in the heart of the sea,

or as he who lies on the top of a mast.

³⁵“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;[#Jer 5:3]

they beat me, but I did not feel it.

When shall I awake?

I must have another drink.”