1When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you,
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And put a knife to your throat If you are a aman of great appetite.
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Do not adesire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food.
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aDo not weary yourself to gain wealth, bCease from your consideration of it.
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When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For awealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
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aDo not eat the bread of a bselfish man, Or desire his delicacies;
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For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But ahis heart is not with you.
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You will avomit up the morsel you have eaten, And waste your compliments.
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aDo not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will bdespise the wisdom of your words.
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Do not move the ancient boundary Or ago into the fields of the fatherless,
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For their aRedeemer is strong; bHe will plead their case against you.
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Apply your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge.
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aDo not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
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You shall strike him with the rod And arescue his soul from Sheol.
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My son, if your heart is awise, My own heart also will be glad;
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And my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak awhat is right.
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aDo not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the bfear of the Lord always.
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Surely there is a afuture, And your bhope will not be cut off.
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Listen, my son, and abe wise, And bdirect your heart in the way.
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Do not be with aheavy drinkers of wine, Or with bgluttonous eaters of meat;
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For the aheavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And bdrowsiness will clothe one with rags.
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aListen to your father who begot you, And bdo not despise your mother when she is old.
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aBuy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.
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The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And ahe who sires a wise son will be glad in him.
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Let your afather and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.
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aGive me your heart, my son, And let your eyes bdelight in my ways.
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For a harlot is a adeep pit And an badulterous woman is a narrow well.
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Surely she alurks as a robber, And increases the faithless among men.
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Who has awoe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
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Those who alinger long over wine, Those who go to taste bmixed wine.
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Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it agoes down smoothly;
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At the last it abites like a serpent And stings like a bviper.
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Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will autter perverse things.
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And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.
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"They astruck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will bseek another drink."