- 1
- When thou sittest to eate with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee,
- 2
- And put the knife to thy throte, if thou be a man giuen to the appetite.
- 3
- Be not desirous of his deintie meates: for it is a deceiuable meate.
- 4
- Trauaile not too much to be rich: but cease from thy wisdome.
- 5
- Wilt thou cast thine eyes vpon it, which is nothing?
For riches taketh her to her wings, as an eagle, and flyeth into the heauen.
- 6
- Eate thou not the bread of him that hath an euil eye, neither desire his deintie meates.
- 7
- For as though he thought it in his heart, so will hee say vnto thee, Eate and drinke: but his heart is not with thee.
- 8
- Thou shalt vomit thy morsels that thou hast eaten, and thou shalt lose thy sweete wordes.
- 9
- Speake not in the eares of a foole: for hee will despise the wisdome of thy wordes.
- 10
- Remooue not the ancient boundes, and enter not into the fieldes of the fatherlesse.
- 11
- For he that redeemeth them, is mightie: he will defend their cause against thee.
- 12
- Apply thine heart to instruction, and thine eares to the wordes of knowledge.
- 13
- Withhold not correction from the childe: if thou smite him with the rodde, he shall not die.
- 14
- Thou shalt smite him with the rodde, and shalt deliuer his soule from hell.
- 15
- My sonne, if thine heart be wise, mine heart shall reioyce, and I also.
- 16
- And my reynes shall reioyce, when thy lips speake righteous things.
- 17
- Let not thine heart bee enuious against sinners: but let it bee in the feare of the Lorde continually.
- 18
- For surely there is an ende, and thy hope shall not be cut off.
- 19
- O thou my sonne, heare, and bee wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
- 20
- Keepe not company with drunkards, nor with gluttons.
- 21
- For the drunkard and the glutton shall bee poore, and the sleeper shalbe clothed with ragges.
- 22
- Obey thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother when she is olde.
- 23
- Bye the trueth, but sell it not: likewise wisdome, and instruction, and vnderstanding.
- 24
- The father of the righteous shal greatly reioyce, and hee that begetteth a wise childe, shall haue ioy of him.
- 25
- Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall reioyce.
- 26
- My sonne, giue mee thine heart, and let thine eyes delite in my wayes.
- 27
- For a whore is as a deepe ditche, and a strange woman is as a narrowe pitte.
- 28
- Also she lyeth in wait as for a praye, and she increaseth the transgressers among men.
- 29
- To whome is woe?
to whome is sorowe? to whom is strife? to whom is murmuring? to whom are woundes without cause? and to whome is the rednesse of the eyes?
- 30
- Euen to them that tarie long at the wine, to them that goe, and seeke mixt wine.
- 31
- Looke not thou vpon the wine, when it is red, and when it sheweth his colour in the cup, or goeth downe pleasantly.
- 32
- In the ende thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrise.
- 33
- Thine eyes shall looke vpon strange women, and thine heart shall speake lewde things.
- 34
- And thou shalt bee as one that sleepeth in the middes of the sea, and as hee that sleepeth in the toppe of the maste.
- 35
- They haue stricken mee, shalt thou say, but I was not sicke: they haue beaten mee, but I knew not, when I awoke: therefore will I seeke it yet still.
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