23 When you sit to eat with a ruler,
    consider diligently what is before you;
² put a knife to your throat,
    if you are a man given to appetite.
³ Don’t be desirous of his dainties,
    since they are deceitful food.
⁴ Don’t weary yourself to be rich.
    In your wisdom, show restraint.
⁵ Why do you set your eyes on that which is not?
    For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
⁶ Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye,
    and don’t crave his delicacies:
⁷     for as he thinks about the cost, so he is.
    “Eat and drink!” he says to you,
    but his heart is not with you.
⁸ The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up,
    and lose your good words.

⁹ Don’t speak in the ears of a fool,
    for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Don’t move the ancient boundary stone.
    Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Defender is strong.
    He will plead their case against you.

¹² Apply your heart to instruction,
    and your ears to the words of knowledge.
¹³ Don’t withhold correction from a child.
    If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ Punish him with the rod,
    and save his soul from Sheol.^[a]

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise,
    then my heart will be glad, even mine.
¹⁶ Yes, my heart will rejoice
    when your lips speak what is right.
¹⁷ Don’t let your heart envy sinners,
    but rather fear Yahweh all day long.
¹⁸ Indeed surely there is a future hope,
    and your hope will not be cut off.
¹⁹ Listen, my son, and be wise,
    and keep your heart on the right path!
²⁰ Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine,
    or those who gorge themselves on meat:
²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor;
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
²² Listen to your father who gave you life,
    and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Buy the truth, and don’t sell it.
    Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
²⁴ The father of the righteous has great joy.
    Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad!
    Let her who bore you rejoice!
²⁶ My son, give me your heart;
    and let your eyes keep in my ways.
²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit;
    and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
²⁸ Yes, she lies in wait like a robber,
    and increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹ Who has woe?
    Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife?
    Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises?
    Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰ Those who stay long at the wine;
    those who go to seek out mixed wine.
³¹ Don’t look at the wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly.
³² In the end, it bites like a snake,
    and poisons like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
³⁴ Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea,
    or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
³⁵ “They hit me, and I was not hurt!
    They beat me, and I don’t feel it!
    When will I wake up? I can do it again.
    I can find another.”