¹ Boast not thyself of to morrow;
For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
² Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth;
A stranger, and not thine own lips.
³ A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty;
But a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
⁴ Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous;
But who is able to stand before envy?
⁵ Open rebuke is better
Than secret love.
⁶ Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
⁷ The full soul loatheth an honeycomb;
But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
⁸ As a bird that wandereth from her nest,
So is a man that wandereth from his place.
⁹ Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart:
So doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.
¹⁰ Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not;
Neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity:
For better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.
¹¹ My son, be wise, and make my heart glad,
That I may answer him that reproacheth me.
¹² A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself;
But the simple pass on, and are punished.
¹³ Take his garment that is surety for a stranger,
And take a pledge of him for a strange woman.
¹⁴ He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning,
It shall be counted a curse to him.
¹⁵ A continual dropping in a very rainy day
And a contentious woman are alike.
¹⁶ Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind,
And the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.
¹⁷ Iron sharpeneth iron;
So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
¹⁸ Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof:
So he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.
¹⁹ As in water face answereth to face,
So the heart of man to man.
²⁰ Hell and destruction are never full;
So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
²¹ As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold;
So is a man to his praise.
²² Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle,
Yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

²³ Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks,
And look well to thy herds.
²⁴ For riches are not for ever:
And doth the crown endure to every generation?
²⁵ The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself,
And herbs of the mountains are gathered.
²⁶ The lambs are for thy clothing,
And the goats are the price of the field.
²⁷ And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household,
And for the maintenance for thy maidens.