1When thou sittest to eate with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee,
2And put the knife to thy throte, if thou be a man giuen to the appetite.
3Be not desirous of his deintie meates: for it is a deceiuable meate.
4Trauaile not too much to be rich: but cease from thy wisdome.
5Wilt thou cast thine eyes vpon it, which is nothing? for riches taketh her to her wings, as an eagle, and flyeth into the heauen.
6Eate thou not the bread of him that hath an euil eye, neither desire his deintie meates.
7For as though he thought it in his heart, so will hee say vnto thee, Eate and drinke: but his heart is not with thee.
8Thou shalt vomit thy morsels that thou hast eaten, and thou shalt lose thy sweete wordes.
9Speake not in the eares of a foole: for hee will despise the wisdome of thy wordes.
10Remooue not the ancient boundes, and enter not into the fieldes of the fatherlesse.
11For he that redeemeth them, is mightie: he will defend their cause against thee.
12Apply thine heart to instruction, and thine eares to the wordes of knowledge.
13Withhold not correction from the childe: if thou smite him with the rodde, he shall not die.
14Thou shalt smite him with the rodde, and shalt deliuer his soule from hell.
15My sonne, if thine heart be wise, mine heart shall reioyce, and I also.
16And my reynes shall reioyce, when thy lips speake righteous things.
17Let not thine heart bee enuious against sinners: but let it bee in the feare of the Lord continually.
18For surely there is an ende, and thy hope shall not be cut off.
19O thou my sonne, heare, and bee wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
20Keepe not company with drunkards, nor with gluttons.
21For the drunkard and the glutton shall bee poore, and the sleeper shalbe clothed with ragges.
22Obey thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother when she is olde.
23Bye the trueth, but sell it not: likewise wisdome, and instruction, and vnderstanding.
24The father of the righteous shall greatly reioyce, and hee that begetteth a wise childe, shall haue ioy of him.
25Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall reioyce.
26My sonne, giue mee thine heart, and let thine eyes delite in my wayes.
27For a whore is as a deepe ditche, and a strange woman is as a narrowe pitte.
28Also she lyeth in wait as for a praye, and she increaseth the transgressers among men.
29To whome is woe? to whome is sorowe? to whom is strife? to whom is murmuring? to whom are woundes without cause? and to whome is the rednesse of the eyes?
30Euen to them that tarie long at the wine, to them that goe, and seeke mixt wine.
31Looke not thou vpon the wine, when it is red, and when it sheweth his colour in the cup, or goeth downe pleasantly.
32In the ende thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrise.
33Thine eyes shall looke vpon strange women, and thine heart shall speake lewde things.
34And thou shalt bee as one that sleepeth in the middes of the sea, and as hee that sleepeth in the toppe of the maste.
35They haue stricken mee, shalt thou say, but I was not sicke: they haue beaten mee, but I knew not, when I awoke: therefore will I seeke it yet still.