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Chapter 23  
     
1.
 When you sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
  
2.
 And put a knife to thy throat, if you 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 your own wisdom.
  
5.
 Wilt you set your eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
  
6.
 Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:
  
7.
 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, said he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
  
8.
 The morsel which you have eaten shall you 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 your heart unto instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
  
13.
 Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
  
14.
 Thou shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell.
  
15.
 My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
  
16.
 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
  
17.
 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
  
18.
 For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.
  
19.
 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide your 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 gave birth to you shall rejoice.
  
26.
 My son, give me your heart, and let your 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 has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes?
  
30.
 They that wait long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.  
31.
 Look not you upon the wine when it is red, when it gives his colour in the cup, when it moves itself aright.
  
32.
 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
  
33.
 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things.
  
34.
 Yea, you shall 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, shall you 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.
  

 
 
 

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