Chapter 23

  When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;  

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  And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.  

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  Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.  

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  Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.  

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  Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.  

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  Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:  

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  For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you.  

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  The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.  

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  Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.  

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  Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;  

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  For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.  

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  Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.  

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  Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.  

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  Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld.  

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  My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;  

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  And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.  

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  Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;  

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  For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.  

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  Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.  

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  Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:  

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  For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed.  

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  Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.  

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  Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.  

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  The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.  

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  Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.  

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  My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.  

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  For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.  

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  Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.  

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  Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?  

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  Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.  

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  Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:  

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  In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.  

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  Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.  

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  Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.  

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  They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.  

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