1 WHEN you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is set before you,

2 That you may not put poison in your mouth. And if you are a man given to excessive appetite,

3 Be not desirous of his food; for his bread is bread of deceit.

4 Do not quarrel with a rich man; but keep away from him wisely.

5 For if you should fix your eye on him, you cannot see him; for he makes for himself wings like an eagle and flies away toward the sky.

6 Do not eat with a hypocrite, neither desire his food;

7 For he is like him that swallows pitch; in like manner you will eat and drink with him, but his heart is not with you.

8 The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will lose your sweet words.

9 Do not speak in the presence of a fool; for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Do not remove the old landmark; nor enter into the field of the fatherless;

11 For their saviour is mighty; he will plead their cause with you.

12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

13 Do not withhold chastisement from a child; for if you beat him, he will not die.

14 For when you beat him with the rod, you will deliver his soul from Sheol.

15 My son, if your heart be wise, my heart also will rejoice.

16 Yea, my heart shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.

17 Let not your heart envy sinners; but revere the LORD all the day long.

18 For surely you will have a future; and your hope shall not be cut off.

19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and fasten my counsel in your heart.

20 Be not drunk with wine; and be not a gluttonous eater of meat:

21 For the drunkard and the gluttonous shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

22 Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

23 Buy the truth, and do not sell wisdom; also buy understanding and instruction.

24 The father of a righteous man shall greatly rejoice; and he who begets a wise child shall be glad.

25 Your father and your mother shall rejoice in you; and the one who bore you shall be happy.

26 My son. give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

27 For a harlot is a deep pit; and a strange woman is a narrow well.

28 She destroys men suddenly, and increases iniquity among men.

29 Who has woe? Who has trouble? Who has contentions? Who has hardships? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

30 Those who tarry long over the wine; and who search for a place of drinking. Be not drunken with wine, but converse with righteous men; walk and talk with them.

31 Do not look on the wine when it is red in the cup, but meditate on righteousness.

32 For at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

33 When your eyes behold a strange woman, then your heart shall utter perverse things.

34 Yea, you shall be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as a sailor in a tempest.

35 They have beaten me, you shall say, but I did not suffer, they have mocked me, but I did not know it; when I shall awake sober, I will go and seek it yet again.