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23When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
   observe carefully what^* is before you,
² and put a knife to your throat
   if you have a big appetite.
³ Do not desire the ruler’s^* delicacies,
   for they are deceptive food.
⁴ Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
   be wise enough to desist.
⁵ When your eyes light upon it, it is gone;
   for suddenly it takes wings to itself,
   flying like an eagle towards heaven.
⁶ Do not eat the bread of the stingy;
   do not desire their delicacies;
⁷ for like a hair in the throat, so are they.^*
   ‘Eat and drink!’ they say to you;
   but they do not mean it.
⁸ You will vomit up the little you have eaten,
   and you will waste your pleasant words.
⁹ Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
   who will only despise the wisdom of your words.
¹⁰ Do not remove an ancient landmark
   or encroach on the fields of orphans,
¹¹ for their redeemer is strong;
   he will plead their cause against you.
¹² Apply your mind to instruction
   and your ear to words of knowledge.
¹³ Do not withhold discipline from your children;
   if you beat them with a rod, they will not die.
¹⁴ If you beat them with the rod,
   you will save their lives from Sheol.
¹⁵ My child, if your heart is wise,
   my heart too will be glad.
¹⁶ My soul will rejoice
   when your lips speak what is right.
¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
   but always continue in the fear of the Lord.
¹⁸ Surely there is a future,
   and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my child, and be wise,
   and direct your mind in the way.
²⁰ Do not be among winebibbers,
   or among gluttonous eaters of meat;
²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
   and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.

²² Listen to your father who begot you,
   and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Buy truth, and do not sell it;
   buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
   he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.
²⁵ Let your father and mother be glad;
   let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My child, give me your heart,
   and let your eyes observe^* my ways.
²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit;
   an adulteress^* is a narrow well.
²⁸ She lies in wait like a robber
   and increases the number of the faithless.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
   Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
   Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger late over wine,
   those who keep trying mixed wines.
³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red,
   when it sparkles in the cup
   and goes down smoothly.
³² At the last it bites like a serpent,
   and stings like an adder.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
   and your mind utter perverse things.
³⁴ You 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.’