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.
22-25 Listen with respect to the father who raised you,and when your mother grows old, don’t neglect her.Buy truth—don’t sell it for love or money;buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.Parents rejoice when their children turn out well;wise children become proud parents.So make your father happy!Make your mother proud!
26 Dear child, I want your full attention;please do what I show you.
27-28 A whore is a bottomless pit;a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast.She’ll take you for all you’ve got;she’s worse than a pack of thieves.
29-35 Who are the people who are always crying the blues?Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?It’s those who spend the night with a bottle,for whom drinking is serious business.Don’t judge wine by its label,or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with—the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.Do you really prefer seeing double,with your speech all slurred,Reeling and seasick,drunk as a sailor?“They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt;they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing.When I’m sober enough to manage it,bring me another drink!”