¹A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, And loving favor rather than silver and gold. ²The rich and the poor meet together: Jehovah is the maker of them all. ³A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it. ⁴The reward of humility and the fear of Jehovah Is riches, and honor, and life. ⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse: He that keepeth his soul shall be far from them. ⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it. ⁷The rich ruleth over the poor; And the borrower is servant to the lender. ⁸He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity; And the rod of his wrath shall fail. ⁹He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; For he giveth of his bread to the poor. ¹⁰Cast out the scoffer, and contention will go out; Yea, strife and ignominy will cease. ¹¹He that loveth pureness of heart, For the grace of his lips the king will be his friend. ¹²The eyes of Jehovah preserve him that hath knowledge; But he overthroweth the words of the treacherous man. ¹³The sluggard saith, There is a lion without: I shall be slain in the streets. ¹⁴The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: He that is abhorred of Jehovah shall fall therein. ¹⁵Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. ¹⁶He that oppresseth the poor to increase his gain, And he that giveth to the rich, shall come only to want. ¹⁷Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, And apply thy heart unto my knowledge. ¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, If they be established together upon thy lips. ¹⁹That thy trust may be in Jehovah, I have made them known to thee this day, even to thee. ²⁰Have not I written unto thee excellent things Of counsels and knowledge, ²¹To make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, That thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee? ²²Rob not the poor, because he is poor; Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: ²³For Jehovah will plead their cause, And despoil of life those that despoil them. ²⁴Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger; And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go: ²⁵Lest thou learn this ways, And get a snare to thy soul. ²⁶Be thou not one of them that strike hands, Or of them that are sureties for debts. ²⁷If thou hast not wherewith to pay, Why should he take away thy bed from under thee? ²⁸Remove not the ancient landmark, Which thy fathers have set. ²⁹Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men.

¹When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that is before thee; ²And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite. ³Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food. ⁴Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom. ⁵Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven. ⁶Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties: ⁷For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee. ⁸The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words. ⁹Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words. ¹⁰Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless: ¹¹For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee. ¹²Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge. ¹³Withhold not correction from the child; For if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die. ¹⁴Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol. ¹⁵My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine: ¹⁶Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things. ¹⁷Let not thy heart envy sinners; But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long: ¹⁸For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off. ¹⁹Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way. ²⁰Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh: ²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. ²²Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old. ²³Buy the truth, and sell it not; Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. ²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him. ²⁵Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice. ²⁶My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways. ²⁷For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit. ²⁸Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men. ²⁹Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? ³⁰They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine. ³¹Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly: ³²At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder. ³³Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things. ³⁴Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. ³⁵They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.