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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 be a man given to appetite. | |
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. | |
4 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. | |
5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. | |
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: | |
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 shall plead their cause with thee. | |
12 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine 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 thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. | |
16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. | |
17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. | |
18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. | |
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. | |
20 Be not among winebibbers; 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 unto 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 bare thee shall rejoice. | |
26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. | |
27 For a whore 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 his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. | |
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. | |
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. | |
34 Yea, 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, shalt 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. | |
