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¹ When thou sittest to eate with a noble man, consider diligently what is set before thee.² Measure thyne appetite if it be gredyly set.³ Be not desirous of his daintie meates, for meate begyleth and deceaueth.

⁴ Take not ouer great trauayle to be riche, beware of suche a purpose.⁵ Wylt thou set thyne eye vpon the thing which sodenly vanisheth away? For riches make them selues wynges, and take their flight lyke an Egle into the ayre.

⁶ Eate thou not the bread of hym that hath an euyll eye: neither desire thou his daintie meate.⁷ For as though he thought it in his heart, he saith, eate and drinke: where as his heart is not with thee.⁸ The morsels that thou hast eaten shalt thou parbreake, and loose those sweete wordes.

⁹ Tell nothing into the eares of a foole: for he wyll despise the wysdome of thy wordes.

¹⁰ Remoue not the olde lande marke, and come not within the fielde of the fatherlesse:¹¹ For their redeemer is mightie, euen he shall defend their cause against thee.

¹² Applye thyne heart vnto correction, and thyne eare to the wordes of knowledge.¹³ Withholde not correction from the chylde: for if thou beatest hym with the rodde, he shall not dye thereof:¹⁴ If thou smyte hym with the rodde, thou shalt deliuer his soule from hell.¹⁵ My sonne if thy heart receaue wysdome, my heart also shall reioyce:¹⁶ Yea my raynes shalbe very glad, if thy lippes speake the thing that is right.

¹⁷ Let not thyne heart be ielous to folowe sinners, but kepe thee styll in the feare of the Lorde all the day long:¹⁸ For veryly there is an ende, and thy pacient abiding shall not be cut of.

¹⁹ My sonne geue eare and be wyse, and set straight thyne heart in the way [of the Lorde.]²⁰ Kepe not company with wine bibbers, and riotous eaters of fleshe:²¹ For suche as be drunkardes and riotours shall come to pouertie: and he that is geuen to muche sleepe, shall go with a ragged coate.²² Geue eare vnto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is olde.²³ Purchase trueth, wysdome, nurture, and vnderstanding, and sell them not.²⁴ The father of the righteous shall greatly reioyce: and he that begetteth a wyse chylde, shall haue ioy of hym.²⁵ [Do so that] thy father and mother may be glad of thee, and that she that bare thee may reioyce.²⁶ My sonne geue me thyne heart, and let thyne eyes haue pleasure in my wayes:²⁷ For an whore is a deepe graue, and a straunge woman is a narowe pit.²⁸ She lyeth in wayte as for a pray, and increaseth the transgressours amongst men.

²⁹ Who hath wo? who hath sorowe? who hath strife? who hath brawling? and who hath woundes without a cause?³⁰ Or who hath red eyes? euen they that be euer at the wine, & seeke excesse.³¹ Looke not thou vpon the wine howe red it is, and what a colour it geueth in the glasse:³² It goeth downe sweetely, but at the last it byteth like a serpent, and stingeth lyke an adder.³³ Thyne eyes shall beholde straunge women, and thyne heart shall vtter lewde thinges:³⁴ Yea thou shalt be as though thou layest in the middest of the sea, or slepest vppon the top of the maste of a ship.³⁵ They haue beaten me [shalt thou say] and I was not sicke, they haue stricken me, and I felt it not: When I am well wakened, I wil go to the drinke again.