The father warns against appetites at a ruler's table, working only for riches and the stingy host. He urges the son to listen to his parents, buy truth and not sell it, and warns against drunkenness.
1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler , consider diligently what is before thee:
2 And put a knife to thy throat , if thou be a man given to appetite .
3 Be not desirous of his dainties : for they are deceitful meat .
4 Labour not to be rich : cease from thine own wisdom .
5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings ; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven .
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye , neither desire thou his dainty meats :
7 For as he thinketh in his heart , so is he: Eat and drink , saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up , and lose thy sweet words .
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool : for he will despise the wisdom of thy words .
10 Remove not the old landmark ; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless :
11 For their redeemer is mighty ; he shall plead their cause with thee.
12 Apply thine heart unto instruction , and thine ears to the words of knowledge .
13 Withhold not correction from the child : for if thou beatest him with the rod , he shall not die .
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod , and shalt deliver his soul from hell .
15 My son , if thine heart be wise , my heart shall rejoice , even mine .
16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice , when thy lips speak right things .
17 Let not thine heart envy sinners : but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
18 For surely there is an end ; and thine expectation shall not be cut off .
19 Hear thou, my son , and be wise , and guide thine heart in the way .
20 Be not among winebibbers ; among riotous eaters of flesh :
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty : and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags .
22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old .
23 Buy the truth , and sell it not; also wisdom , and instruction , and understanding .
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice : and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
25 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad , and she that bare thee shall rejoice .
26 My son , give me thine heart , and let thine eyes observe my ways .
27 For a whore is a deep ditch ; and a strange woman is a narrow pit .
28 She also lieth in wait as for a prey , and increaseth the transgressors among men .
29 Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who hath babbling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ?
30 They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine .
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red , when it giveth his colour in the cup , when it moveth itself aright .
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent , and stingeth like an adder .
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women , and thine heart shall utter perverse things .
34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea , or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast .
35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick ; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake ? I will seek it yet again.