- 1. When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
- 2. And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
- 3. Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
- 4. Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
- 5. Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
- 6. Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
- 7. For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you.
- 8. The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
- 9. Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.
- 10. Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
- 11. For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
- 12. Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
- 13. Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.
- 14. Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld.
- 15. My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
- 16. And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
- 17. Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
- 18. For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
- 19. Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
- 20. Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
- 21. For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed.
- 22. Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.
- 23. Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.
- 24. The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.
- 25. Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
- 26. My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
- 27. For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
- 28. Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
- 29. Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
- 30. Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
- 31. Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:
- 32. In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
- 33. Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
- 34. Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
- 35. They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.
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