1The words of him that gathereth, of the son spewing. The prophecy which a man spake, with whom God was, and which man was comforted by God dwelling with him, and said,

2I am the most foolish of men; and the wisdom of men is not with me.

3I learned not wisdom; and I knew not the knowing of holy men.

4Who ascended [or went up] into heaven, and came down? Who held together the spirit or wind in his hands? who bound together waters as in a cloth? Who raised up all the ends of [the] earth? What is the name of him? and what is the name of his son, if thou knowest?

5Each word of God is a shield set afire, to all that hope in him.

6Add thou not anything to the words of him, and thou be reproved, and be found a liar.

7I prayed thee for two things; deny not thou them to me, before that I die.

8Make thou far from me vanity and words of leasing; give thou not to me begging and riches; but give thou only necessaries to my lifelode;

9lest peradventure I be full-filled, and be drawn to deny, and say, Who is the Lord? and lest I be compelled by neediness, and steal, and forswear the name of my God.

10Accuse thou not a servant to his lord, lest peradventure he curse thee, and thou fall down.

11A generation that curseth his father, and that blesseth not his mother.

12A generation that seemeth clean to itself, and nevertheless is not washed from his filths.

13A generation whose eyes be high, and the eyelids thereof be raised [up] into high things.

14A generation that hath swords for teeth, and eateth with his cheek teeth; that it eat [the] needy men of [the] earth, and the poor-alls [or the poor] of men.

15The water leach hath two daughters, saying, Bring, bring. Three things be unable to be filled, and the fourth, that saith never, It sufficeth;

16hell; and the mouth of the womb; and the earth that is never filled with water; but fire that saith never, It sufficeth.

17Crows of the strand [or the streams] peck out that eye, that scorneth the father, and that despiseth the child-bearing of his mother; and the young of an eagle eat that eye.

18Three things be hard to me, and utterly I know not the fourth thing;

19the way of an eagle in heaven; the way of a serpent on a stone; the way of a ship in the middle of the sea; and the way of a man in his young waxing age.

20Such is the way of a woman adulteress, which eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I wrought not evil.

21The earth is moved by three things, and by the fourth thing, which it may not sustain;

22by a servant, when he reigneth; by a fool, when he is filled with meat;

23by an hateful woman, when she is taken in matrimony; and by an handmaid, when she is heir of her lady.

24Four [things] be the least things of [the] earth, and those be wiser than wise men;

25ants, a feeble people, that make ready meat in harvest to themselves;

26a hare, a people unmighty, that setteth his bed in a stone;

27a locust hath no king, and all goeth out by companies;

28a lizard enforceth or endeavoureth with hands, and dwelleth in the houses of kings.

29Three things there be, that go well, and the fourth thing, that goeth richly, either by prosperity.

30A lion, strongest of beasts, shall not dread, at the meeting of any man;

31a cock, girded [up] the loins; and a ram, and a king, and none there is that shall against-stand him.

32He that appeareth a fool, after that he is raised [up] on high; for if he had understood, he had set his hand on his mouth.

33Forsooth he that thrusteth strongly teats, to draw out milk, thrusteth out butter; and he that smiteth greatly, draweth out blood; and he that stirreth ires, bringeth forth discords.