20 Wine is a lecherous thing, and drunkenness is full of noise; whoever delighteth in these, shall not be wise.

¹⁷ He that loveth meats shall be in neediness (He who loveth too much food shall be in want); he that loveth wine and fat things, shall not be made rich.

²⁰ Do not thou be in the feasts of drinkers, neither in the oft eatings of them, that bring together fleshes to eat. (Do not thou be at the feasts of drinkers, nor at the oft eatings of those who bring much meat to eat.)

²¹ For men giving attention to drinks, and giving morsels together, shall be wasted, and napping shall be clothed with clothes rent. (For those giving attention to drinks, and giving morsels to each other, shall be wasted, or destroyed, and their napping shall eventually clothe them with torn clothes.)

²⁹ To whom is woe? to whose father is woe? to whom be chidings? (to whom be arguments?) to whom be ditches? to whom be wounds without cause? to whom is putting out of eyes?

³⁰ Whether not to them, that dwell in wine, and study to drink [up] all of (the) cups? (Whether not to those, who live in wine, and endeavour to drink up every last drop from the cup?)

³¹ Behold thou not [the] wine (Look thou not upon the wine), when it sparkleth, when the colour thereof shineth in a glass cup. It entereth sweetly,

³² but at the last it shall bite as an adder, and as a cockatrice it shall shed abroad venoms. (but in the end, it shall bite like a serpent, and it shall sting, with its venom, like a cockatrice.)

³³ Thine eyes shall see strange, (or unknown,) women, and thy heart shall speak wayward things.

³⁴ And thou shalt be as a man sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a governor asleeped, when the steer(ing), either the instrument of governance, is lost.

³⁵ And thou shalt say, They beat me, but I had not sorrow; they drew me, and I feeled not; when shall I wake out, and I shall find wines again? (when shall I wake up, and I can drink more wine again?)

⁴ A! Lemuel, do not thou give wine to kings; for no private there is, where drunkenness reigneth. (O! Lemuel, do not thou give wine to kings; for there is no secret place, where drunkenness can reign.)

⁵ Lest peradventure they drink, and forget dooms, and change the cause of the sons of a poor man. (Lest perhaps they drink, and forget justice, and pervert the cause of the poor.)

⁶ Give ye cider to them that mourn, and wine to them that be of bitter soul.

⁷ Drink they, and forget they their neediness; and think they no more on their sorrow.