Moff PROV Chapter 23

23 

When you are sitting at a ruler’s table

be careful how you eat;

2 

control yourself,

if you have a large appetite.

4 

Toil not to grow rich;

renounce that aim:

5 

wealth is no sooner seen than gone,

it makes wings for itself

like an eagle flying skyward.

6 

Never dine with a niggardly man,

never fancy his dainties;

7 

he counts his dishes,

even as he bids you “Eat and drink”--

he has no mind to you;

8 

your gorge will rise at what you swallow,

3 

for he deceives you as he feeds you.

9 

Never talk to a fool,

for he will despise your words of wisdom;

8 

you are throwing away your fine sayings.

10 

Remove not a widow’s landmark,

encroach not on the orphans’ estate;

11 

for they have a mighty Champion,

who will take their part against you.

12 

Apply your mind to instruction

attend to words of knowledge;

23 

buy truth, never part with it,

buy wisdom, sense, and knowledge.

13 

Leave not your child unpunished;

if you whip him, you save him from death.

14 

You must whip him with the rod,

and so preserve his life.

15 

My son, if you are wise,

I shall indeed be joyful;

16 

my heart will be glad

to hear wise words from you.

17 

Never envy evil men,

but always reverence the Eternal;

18 

for something will yet come to you,

your hope will not be lost.

19 

Listen, my son, and be wise

be guided by good sense:

20 

never sit down with tipsy me

or among gluttons;

21 

the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty

and revelling leaves men in rags.

22 

Listen to your own father,

and despise not your old mother;

23 

make your father glad,

your mother happy;

24 

for a good man’s father will rejoice,

and a sensible son brings joy to his mother.

26 

Attend to me, my son,

mark my injunctions:

27 

for a harlot is a deep, deep pit,

a loose woman is a narrow pit;

28 

yes, and she lies in wait like a robber,

and many a man she plunders.

29 

Who shriek? who groan?

Who quarrel and grumble

Who are bruised for nothing

Who have bleary eyes?

30 

Those who linger over the bottle,

those who relish blended wines.

31 

Then look not on the wine so red,

that sparkles in the cup

it glides down smoothly at the first,

32 

but in the end it bites like any snake,

it stings you like an adder.

33 

You will be seeing odd things,

you will be saying queer things;

34 

you will be like a man asleep at sea,

asleep in the midst of a storm,

35 

muttering, “I was hit, not hurt,

I was beaten, but I feel nothing!

When ever will morning come

till I can get drunk again?”