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- ¶ WHEN you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is set before you,
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- That you may not put poison in your mouth.
And if you are a man given to excessive appetite,
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- Be not desirous of his food;
for his bread is bread of deceit.
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- ¶ Do not quarrel with a rich man;
but keep away from him wisely.
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- For if you should fix your eye on him, you cannot see him;
for he makes for himself wings like an eagle and flies away toward the sky.
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- ¶ Do not eat with a hypocrite, neither desire his food;
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- For he is like him that swallows pitch;
in like manner you will eat and drink with him, but his heart is not with you.
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- The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will lose your sweet words.
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- ¶ Do not speak in the presence of a fool;
for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
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- ¶ Do not remove the old landmark;
nor enter into the field of the fatherless;
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- For their saviour is mighty;
he will plead their cause with you.
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- ¶ Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
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- Do not withhold chastisement from a child;
for if you beat him, he will not die.
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- For when you beat him with the rod, you will deliver his soul from Sheol.
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- My son, if your heart be wise, my heart also will rejoice.
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- Yea, my heart shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
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- ¶ Let not your heart envy sinners;
but revere the LORD all the day long.
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- For surely you will have a future;
and your hope shall not be cut off.
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- ¶ Hear, my son, and be wise, and fasten my counsel in your heart.
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- Be not drunk with wine;
and be not a gluttonous eater of meat:
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- For the drunkard and the gluttonous shall come to poverty;
and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
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- Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
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- Buy the truth, and do not sell wisdom;
also buy understanding and instruction.
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- The father of a righteous man shall greatly rejoice;
and he who begets a wise child shall be glad.
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- Your father and your mother shall rejoice in you;
and the one who bore you shall be happy.
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- My son.
give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
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- For a harlot is a deep pit;
and a strange woman is a narrow well.
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- She destroys men suddenly, and increases iniquity among men.
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- ¶ Who has woe?
Who has trouble? Who has contentions? Who has hardships? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
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- Those who tarry long over the wine;
and who search for a place of drinking. Be not drunken with wine, but converse with righteous men; walk and talk with them.
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- Do not look on the wine when it is red in the cup, but meditate on righteousness.
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- For at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
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- When your eyes behold a strange woman, then your heart shall utter perverse things.
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- Yea, you shall be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as a sailor in a tempest.
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- They have beaten me, you shall say, but I did not suffer, they have mocked me, but I did not know it;
when I shall awake sober, I will go and seek it yet again.
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