1Pursue [or follow] thou not evil men, desire thou not to be with them.

2For the soul of them bethinketh on ravens, and their lips speak frauds.

3An house shall be builded by wisdom, and it shall be made strong by prudence, or understanding.

4[The] Cellars shall be filled in teaching, with all riches precious and full fair.

5A wise man is strong, and a learned man is stalworth[y] and mighty.

6For why battle is begun with ordinance; and health shall be, where many counsels be.

7Wisdom is high to a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.

8He that thinketh to do evils, shall be called a fool.

9The thought of a fool is sin; and a backbiter is abomination of men.

10If thou hast slid, despairest in the day of anguish, thy strength shall be made less.

11Deliver thou them, that be led to death; and cease thou not to deliver them, that be drawn to death.

12If thou sayest, Strengths or Strong-holds suffice not; he that is [the] beholder of the heart, understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall yield to a man after his works.

13My son, eat thou honey, for it is good; and the honeycomb for it is full sweet to thy throat.

14So and the teaching of wisdom is good to thy soul; and when thou hast found it, thou shalt have hope in the last things, and thine hope shall not perish.

15Ambush thou not, and seek not wickedness in the house of a just [or rightwise] man, neither waste thou, his resting place.

16For a just [or rightwise] man shall fall seven times in the day, and shall rise again; but wicked men shall fall into evil.

17When thine enemy falleth, have thou not joy; and thine heart have not full out joying in his falling;

18lest peradventure the Lord see, and it displease him, and he take away his ire [or his wrath] from him.

19Strive thou not with the worst men, neither pursue [or follow] thou wicked men.

20For why evil men have not hope of things to come, and the lantern of wicked men shall be quenched.

21My son, dread thou God, and the king; and be thou not meddled [or mingled] with backbiters.

22For their perdition shall rise together suddenly, and who knoweth the fall of ever either?

23Also these things that pursue be to wise men. It is not good to know a person in doom.

24Peoples shall curse them that say to a wicked man, Thou art just [or rightwise]; and lineages shall hold them abominable.

25They that reprove justly sinners, shall be praised; and blessing shall come [up] on them.

26He that answereth with rightful [or right] words, shall kiss lips.

27Make ready thy work withoutforth, and work thy field diligently, that thou build thine house afterward.

28Be thou not a witness without reasonable cause against thy neighbour; neither flatter thou any man with thy lips.

29Say thou not, As he did to me, so I shall do to him, and I shall yield to each man after his work.

30I passed by the field of a slow man, and by the vinery [or the vineyard] of a fond [or foolish] man;

31and lo! nettles had filled all, thorns had covered the higher part thereof, and the wall of stones without mortar was destroyed.

32And when I had seen this thing, I setted [or put] in mine heart, and by ensample, I learned teaching.

33How long sleepest thou, slow man? when shalt thou rise from sleep? Soothly thou shalt sleep a little, thou shalt nap a little, thou shalt join together the hands a little, to take rest;

34and then thy neediness as a courier shall come to thee, and thy beggary as an armed man.