9. Or I’ll be full and deny you,and say, "Who is the Lord?"Or I’ll be poor and steal,and dishonor my God’s name.
10. Don’t slander a servant to his master;otherwise, the servant will curse you, and you will be guilty.
11. There are those who curse their fatherand don’t bless their mother.
12. There are those who think they are clean,but haven’t washed off their own excrement.
13. There are those—how arrogant are their eyes;how their eyebrows are raised!
14. There are those whose teeth are swords;their jaw is a butcher’s knife,ready to devour the needy from the earth,and the poor from humanity.
15. The leech has two daughters: “Give, give!”There are three things that are never satisfied,four that never say, “Enough!”:
16. the grave and a barren womb,a land never filled with water,and fire that doesn’t say, “Enough!”
17. An eye that mocks a fatherand rejects obedience to a mother,may the ravens of the river valley peck it out,and the eagle’s young eat it.
18. Three things are too wonderful for me,four that I can’t figure out:
19. the way of an eagle in the sky,the way of a snake on the rock,the way of a ship out on the open sea,and the way of a man with a young woman.
20. This is the way of an adulterous woman:she eats and wipes her mouth,and she says, "I’ve done nothing wrong!"
21. At three things the earth trembles,at four it can’t bear up:
22. at a servant when he becomes kingand fools when they are full of food;
23. at a detested woman when she gets marriedand a female servant when she replaces her mistress.