1When you sit down to eat with a ruler, think carefully about what is set before you.
2Put a knife to your throat, if you are a man with a greedy appetite.
3Do not long for his fine food, for it is deceitful food.
4Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Stop trusting your own cleverness.
5Will you fix your eyes on something that is not there? For riches surely make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward the sky.
6Do not eat the bread of a man with a grudging eye, and do not long for his fine food.
7For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
8You will vomit up the piece you have eaten, and you will have wasted your kind words.
9Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10Do not move the old boundary stone, and do not go into the fields of the fatherless.
11For their redeemer is strong. He will take up their case against you.
12Give your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.
13Do not hold back correction from a child. If you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14You shall beat him with the rod, and save his soul from hell.
15My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will be glad.
16Yes, my inmost self will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
17Do not let your heart envy sinners. Instead, stay in the fear of the LORD all day long.
18For surely there is an end, and your hope will not be cut off.
19Listen, my son, and be wise. Guide your heart in the way.
20Do not be among those who drink too much wine, or among those who stuff themselves with meat.
21For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and sleepiness will clothe a man in rags.
22Listen to your father, who was the father of you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23Buy the truth, and do not sell it. Buy wisdom too, and instruction, and understanding.
24The father of a righteous child will greatly rejoice. The man who is the father of a wise child will have joy in him.
25Your father and your mother will be glad, and she who gave birth to you will rejoice.
26My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes watch my ways.
27For a prostitute is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28She lies in wait like a robber, and she makes more men unfaithful.
29Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has quarrels? Who has complaining? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has red eyes?
30Those who linger long over the wine, those who go looking for mixed wine.
31Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
32In the end it bites like a snake, and stings like an adder.
33Your eyes will see strange women, and your heart will speak twisted things.
34Yes, you will be like a man lying down in the middle of the sea, or like a man lying on the top of a mast.
35You will say, "They struck me, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When will I wake up? I will look for another drink."