23 When you sit down to eat with an official,
    observe carefully what^[a] is before you,
² and put a knife to your throat
    if you have a big appetite.
³ Do not desire an official’s^[b] delicacies,
    for they are deceptive food.^(A)
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    be wise enough to desist.^(B)
5 When your eyes light upon it, it is gone,
    for suddenly it takes wings to itself,
    flying like an eagle toward heaven.
⁶ Do not eat the bread of the stingy;
    do not desire their delicacies,^(C)
7 for like a hair in the throat, so are they.^[c]
    “Eat and drink!” they say to you,
    but they do not mean it.^(D)
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.^(E)
10 Do not remove an ancient landmark
    or encroach on the fields of orphans,^(F)
11 for their vindicator^[d] is strong;
    he will plead their cause against you.^(G)
12 Apply your mind to instruction
    and your ear to words of knowledge.^(H)
13 Do not withhold discipline from your children;
    if you beat them with a rod, they will not die.^(I)
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 also 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.^(J)
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,^(K)
21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
    and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.^(L)

²² Listen to your father who begot you,
    and do not despise your mother when she is old.^(M)
23 Buy truth, and do not sell it;
    buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.^(N)
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
    he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.^(O)
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^[e] my ways.^(P)
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;
    an adulteress^[f] is a narrow well.^(Q)
28 She lies in wait like a robber
    and increases the number of the faithless.^(R)

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
    Who has redness of eyes?^(S)
30 Those who linger late over wine,
    those who keep trying mixed wines.^(T)
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.^(U)
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.^[g]
35 “They struck me,” you will say,^[h] “but I was not hurt;
    they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
    I will seek another drink.”^(V)