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v1
When you sit to eat with a ruler, you shall surely observe what is before you,
v2
and you shall put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite. ^[Literally “lord/master of life”]
v3
Do not desire his delicacies, for ^[Hebrew “and”] it is food of deception.
v4
Do not tire in order to become rich; out of your understanding, may you desist.
v5
Your eyes will alight ^[Literally “cause to fly”] on it, but there is nothing to it, for suddenly it will make for itself wings like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.
v6
Do not eat the bread of the stingy, ^[Literally “stingy of eye”] and do not desire his delicacies.
v7
For, like hair in his throat, ^[Literally “soul,” or “inner self”] so it is. ^[Or “is he”] “Eat and drink!” he will say to you, but his heart will not be with you.
v8
Your morsel you have eaten, you will vomit it up, and you will waste your pleasant words.
v9
In the ears of a fool do not speak, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
v10
Do not remove an ancient boundary marker, and on the fields of orphans do not encroach;
v11
For their redeemer is strong, he himself will plead their cause against you.
v12
Apply your heart ^[Or “mind”] to instruction, and your ear to sayings of knowledge.
v13
Do not withhold discipline from a child, if you will beat him with the rod, he will not die.
v14
As for you, with the rod you shall beat him, and his life ^[Or “soul,” or “inner self”] you will save from Sheol. ^[A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld]
v15
My child, if your heart ^[Or “mind”] is wise, my heart will be glad—even me!
v16
And my insides ^[Literally “kidneys”] will rejoice when your lips speak what is upright.
v17
May your heart ^[Or “mind”] not envy the sinners, but live in fear of Yahweh all day. ^[Literally “all the day”]
v18
Surely ^[Literally “For if”] there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
v19
You, my child, hear and be wise, and direct your heart ^[Or “mind”] on the road.
v20
Do not be among drinkers of wine, among gluttonous eaters of their meat. ^[Literally “meat for them”]
v21
For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor, and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.
v22
Listen to your father—he who gave you life, ^[Literally “caused you to be born”] and do not despise your mother when ^[Or “for, because”] she is old.
v23
Buy truth and do not sell it, wisdom and instruction and understanding.
v24
The father of the righteous will surely rejoice; he who bears a wise person will be happy with him.
v25
May your father and your mother be glad, and may she who bore you rejoice.
v26
My child, may you give your heart ^[Or “mind”] to me, and may your eyes delight in my ways.
v27
For a deep pit is a prostitute, ^[Or “whore”] and a narrow well is an adulteress. ^[Literally “a foreign woman”]
v28
She is also like a robber lying in wait, and the faithless among mankind she increases.
v29
To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint? To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?
v30
To those who linger over wine, to those who come to try mixed wine.
v31
Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles ^[Literally “gives its eye”] on the cup, going down smoothly.
v32
In the end, ^[Literally “end him”] it will bite like a serpent, and it will sting like an adder.
v33
Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart ^[Or “mind”] will speak perverse things.
v34
And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea, and like him who lies down on top of a mast.
v35
“They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it. When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”