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23When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
observe carefully what is before you,
²and put a knife to your throat
if you have a big appetite.
³Do not desire the ruler’s delicacies,
for they are deceptive food.
⁴Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
be wise enough to desist.
⁵When your eyes light upon it, it is gone;
for suddenly it takes wings to itself,
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
⁶Do not eat the bread of the stingy;
do not desire their delicacies;
⁷for like a hair in the throat, so are they.
“Eat and drink!” they say to you;
but they do not mean it.
⁸You will vomit up the little you have eaten,
and you will waste your pleasant words.
⁹Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
who will only despise the wisdom of your words.
¹⁰Do not remove an ancient landmark
or encroach on the fields of orphans,
¹¹for their redeemer is strong;
he will plead their cause against you.
¹²Apply your mind to instruction
and your ear to words of knowledge.
¹³Do not withhold discipline from your children;
if you beat them with a rod, they will not die.
¹⁴If you beat them with the rod,
you will save their lives from Sheol.
¹⁵My child, if your heart is wise,
my heart too will be glad.
¹⁶My soul will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right.
¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always continue in the fear of the Lord.
¹⁸Surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁹Hear, my child, and be wise,
and direct your mind in the way.
²⁰Do not be among winebibbers,
or among gluttonous eaters of meat;
²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and drowsiness will clothe them with rags. ²²Listen to your father who begot you,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³Buy truth, and do not sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.
²⁵Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice. ²⁶My child, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit;
an adulteress is a narrow well.
²⁸She lies in wait like a robber
and increases the number of the faithless. ²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰Those who linger late over wine,
those who keep trying mixed wines.
³¹Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
³²At the last it bites like a serpent,
and stings like an adder.
³³Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind utter perverse things.
³⁴You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
³⁵“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I will seek another drink.”