1-3. When you go out to dinner with an influential person,mind your manners:Don’t gobble your food,don’t talk with your mouth full.And don’t stuff yourself;bridle your appetite.
4-5. Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich;restrain yourself!Riches disappear in the blink of an eye;wealth sprouts wingsand flies off into the wild blue yonder.
6-8. Don’t accept a meal from a tightwad;don’t expect anything special.He’ll be as stingy with you as he is with himself;he’ll say, “Eat! Drink!” but won’t mean a word of it.His miserly serving will turn your stomachwhen you realize the meal’s a sham.
9. Don’t bother talking sense to fools;they’ll only poke fun at your words.
10-11. Don’t stealthily move back the boundary linesor cheat orphans out of their property,For they have a powerful Advocatewho will go to bat for them.
12. Give yourselves to disciplined instruction;open your ears to tested knowledge.
13-14. Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones;a spanking won’t kill them.A good spanking, in fact, might save themfrom something worse than death.
15-16. Dear child, if you become wise,I’ll be one happy parent.My heart will dance and singto the tuneful truth you’ll speak.
17-18. Don’t for a minute envy careless rebels;soak yourself in the Fear-of-God—That’s where your future lies.Then you won’t be left with an armload of nothing.
19-21. Oh listen, dear child—become wise;point your life in the right direction.Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk;don’t eat too much food and get fat.Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row,in a stupor and dressed in rags.