1 When you sit to eat {lilkhom: shared meal} with a ruler, carefully consider {bin: deeply contemplate} what is set before you.
2 And you must put a knife {sakin: cutting instrument} to your throat if you are a master of appetite {nefesh: desire, inner being}.
3 Do not desire his delicacies {matammotav: subtle flavors}, for it is bread of lies {kezavim: deceptions}.
4 Do not labor {tiga': strenuous work} to become rich; from your own understanding {binah: reflective wisdom} desist.
5 Will you set your eyes on it—and it is gone? For surely it makes itself wings{kenafayim: dual appendages}, like an eagle, and flies away toward the heavens{shamayim: sky-realm}.
6 Do not eat the bread of one with an evil eye {ra-ayin: stingy, begrudging}, and do not crave his delicacies {maṭʿammōtāv: tempting foods}.
7 For as he calculates {sha'ar: weighs options} in his soul, so is he; “Eat and drink,” he will say to you, but his heart {lev: inner motives} is not with you.
8 The morsel {pitkha: small portion} you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will ruin your pleasant words {ne’imim: delightful expressions}.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool {kesil: stubbornly ignorant one}, for he will despise the wisdom {sekhel: prudent understanding} of your words.
10 Do not move an ancient boundary {gevul: property line}; do not enter the fields of the fatherless {yetomim: those without a protector}.
11 For their Redeemer is strong {chazak: mighty}; He will contend {yariv: legal dispute} for their case with you.
12 Bring your heart to instruction {musar: disciplined training}, and your ears to the sayings of knowledge {da’at: discerned understanding}.
13 Do not withhold discipline {musar: moral training} from a youth; for if you strike him with the rod {shevet: symbol of authority}, he will not die.
14 You will strike {takkennu: inflict corrective discipline} him with the rod, and you will deliver his soul {nephesh: life essence} from Sheol.
15 My son, if your heart {lev: inner being} is wise {chakam: skillful discernment}, then even my heart will rejoice.
16 And my inner being {kilyotai: deepest emotions} will rejoice when your lips speak what is upright {meysharim: rectitude}.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners {chattayim: morally culpable individuals}, but remain in the fear of the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Authority} all day long.
18 For surely there is an end {acharit: final outcome}, and your hope {tikvah: expectation of future} will not be cut off.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise; and direct your heart {libbekha: inner self} to the way {baderekh: moral direction}.
20 Do not be among drinkers-of-wine {sovei-yayin: habitual wine drinkers} or among gluttons-of-meat {basar: flesh, animal food}.
21 For the drunkard {sove: habitual intoxication} and the glutton {zolel: chronic overeating} will become poor, and drowsiness will clothe one in rags.
22 Listen to your father {av: paternal authority}, the one who begot you, and do not despise {tavoz: scornful rejection} your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth {emet: moral integrity}, and do not sell it; acquire wisdom and instruction and understanding {binah: discernment, insight}.
24 The father of a righteous {tsaddiq: just} one will rejoice greatly, and he who begets a wise {chakam: possessing discernment} one will rejoice in him.
25 Let your father rejoice {rejoice: express blessingful delight} and let your mother exult {exult: overflow with joy}, and let her who gave you birth be glad.
26 My son, give me your heart {libecha: center of thought}, and let your eyes delight {tirtsenah: take pleasure} in my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit {shucha: metaphorical trap}, and a foreign woman is a narrow well {uveer: concealed danger}.
28 Also she lies in wait like a robber {cheteph: ambush predator}, and she increases the traitors {bogedim: treacherous individuals} among men.
29 For whom is woe, for whom is sorrow, for whom are contentions, for whom are disputes, for whom is complaining, for whom are wounds without cause{chinnam: undeserved}, for whom is redness{chaklilut: inflamed appearance} of eyes?
30 To those who linger {lame’acharim: habitual revelers} over wine, to those who go to investigate mixed wine {mimsaḵ: spiced drink}.
31 Do not look at wine when it becomes red, when it gives its eye {eino: alluring gleam} in the cup, when it moves about uprightly {bemeisharim: apparent smoothness}.
32 Its end {acharit: Final Outcome} will be like a serpent—it will bite, and like a viper {tsif'oni: Venomous Serpent}, it will sting.
33 Your eyes will see strange things {zarot: distorted sights}, and your heart will speak perverse things {tahpukhoth: twisted utterances}.
34 And you will be like one who lies down in the heart of the sea {lev: the very center}, and like one who lies down on the top of a mast {khibel: ship’s pole}.
35 They struck me, but I was not sick; they beat me, yet I did not know it. When shall I awake {aqitz: rouse from stupor}? I will add, and I will seek it again {avakshenu: persistent craving}.