At a Ruler’s Table
1When you sit down to eat with a ruler, look carefully at what is before you, 2and put a knife to your own throat if you are a man of appetite. 3Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is a lie. 4Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the sense to stop. 5Let your eyes fly to it and it is gone: wealth sprouts wings for itself and flies off to the sky like an eagle. 6Do not eat the bread of a grudging man, and do not crave his delicacies, 7for he is the sort who keeps count within himself. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. 8You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. 9Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words. 10Do not move an ancient boundary stone or enter the fields of the fatherless, 11for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their case against you. 12Bring your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge. 13Do not withhold discipline from a boy; if you strike him with the rod, he will not die. 14Strike him with the rod, and you will save his life from Sheol.
My Son, Give Me Your Heart
15My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad, 16and my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. 17Do not let your heart envy sinners, but stay in the fear of Yahweh all day long. 18For there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. 19Listen, my son, and be wise, and set your heart straight on the way. 20Do not be among those who guzzle wine or gorge themselves on meat, 21for the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and drowsiness dresses a man in rags. 22Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. 23Buy truth and do not sell it—wisdom, discipline and understanding. 24The father of a righteous man rejoices greatly; whoever fathers a wise son will delight in him. 25Let your father and your mother be glad; let the one who bore you rejoice. 26My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways. 27For a prostitute is a deep pit, and the foreign woman a narrow well. 28She lies in wait like a robber and multiplies the treacherous among men.
The Cup That Bites
29Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has wounds for nothing? Who has bloodshot eyes? 30Those who linger over wine, who go looking for a blended cup. 31Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. 32In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper. 33Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will speak in twists. 34You will be like a man lying down in the heart of the sea, like one lying at the top of the mast. 35“They struck me, and I felt nothing; they beat me, and I did not know it. When will I wake up? I will go looking for another drink.”
