23:4,5,9,15,16,19-21,29-35;
24:1-7,10,13-16,19,20
Reading 3.
Do not make friends with one who gives way to anger,
make no one quick-tempered a companion of yours,
for fear you will learn such behavior
and in it find a snare for yourself.
Do not be one of those who go guarantor,
who go surety for debts.
The joys of wisdom
Blessed are those who have discovered wisdom,
those who have acquired understanding!
Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth,
stop applying your mind to this.
Fix your gaze on it, and it is there no longer,
for it is able to sprout wings
like an eagle that flies off to the sky.
Do not waste words on a fool,
who will not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.
My child, if your heart is wise,
then my own heart is glad,
and my inmost self rejoices
when from your lips come honest words.
Listen, my child, and be wise,
and guide your heart in the way.
Do not be one of those forever tipping wine
nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;
for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves,
and sleepiness is clothed in rags.
For whom is pity, for whom contempt,
for whom is strife, for whom complaint,
for whom blows struck at random,
for whom the clouded eye?
For those who linger over wine too long,
ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.
Do not gaze at wine, how red it is,
how it sparkles in the cup!
How smoothly it slips down the throat!
In the end its bite is like a serpent's,
its sting as sharp as an adder's.
Your eyes will see peculiar things,
you will talk nonsense from your heart.
You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean,
like one asleep at the mast-head.
'Struck me, have they? But I'm not hurt,
Beaten me? I don't feel anything.
When shall I wake up?..
I'll ask for more of it!'
Do not be envious of the wicked
or wish for their company,
for their hearts are scheming violence,
their lips talking of mischief.
By wisdom is a house built,
by understanding it is made strong;
by knowledge its storerooms are filled
with riches of every kind, rare and desirable.
Anyone wise is mighty in force,
knowledge confirms someone's strength;
for it is by strategy that you wage war,
and victory depends on having many counselors.
For a fool wisdom is an inaccessible fortress;
at the city gate he does not open his mouth.
If you lose heart when things go wrong,
your strength is not worth much.
Eat honey, my child, since it is good;
honey that drips from the comb is sweet to the taste;
and so, for sure, will wisdom be to your soul:
find it and you will have a future
and your hope will not be cut short.
Do not lurk, wicked man, round the upright man's dwelling,
do not despoil his house.
For though the upright falls seven times, he gets up again;
the wicked are the ones who stumble in adversity.
Do not be indignant about the wicked,
do not be envious of the evil,
for there is no future for the evil,
the lamp of the wicked will go out.
