1 Don’t boast about tomorrow,
for you don’t know what the day may bring.
2 Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth,
a stranger and not your own lips.
3 Stone is heavy and sand a dead weight,
but a fool’s provocation outweighs them both.
4 Fury is cruel and anger overwhelming,
but who can stand up to jealousy?
5 Better open rebuke
than hidden love.
6 Wounds from a friend are received as well-meant,
but an enemy’s kisses are insincere.
7 A person who is full loathes a honeycomb;
but to the hungry, any bitter thing is sweet.
8 Like a bird that strays from its nest
is a man who strays from his home.
9 Perfume and incense make the heart glad,
[also] friendship sweet with advice from the heart.
10 Don’t abandon a friend
who is also a friend of your father.
Don’t enter your brother’s house on the day of your calamity —
better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.
11 My son, become wise, and gladden my heart,
so that I can answer my critics.
12 The clever see trouble coming and hide;
the thoughtless go on and pay the penalty.
13 Seize his clothes because he guaranteed a stranger’s loan;
take them as security for that unknown woman.
14 Whoever greets his neighbor in a loud voice at dawn
might just as well have cursed him.
15 A leak that keeps dripping on a rainy day
and the nagging of a wife are the same —
16 whoever can restrain her can restrain the wind
or keep perfume on his hand from making itself known.
17 Just as iron sharpens iron,
a person sharpens the character of his friend.
18 Whoever tends the fig tree will eat its fruit,
and he who is attentive to his master will be honored.
19 Just as water reflects the face,
so one human heart reflects another.
20 Sh’ol and Abaddon are never satisfied,
and human eyes are never satisfied.
21 The crucible [tests] silver, and the furnace [tests] gold,
but a person [is tested] by [his reaction to] praise.
22 You can crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle,
along with the grain being crushed;
yet his foolishness will not leave him.
23 Take care to know the condition of your flocks,
and pay attention to your herds.
24 For wealth doesn’t last forever,
neither does a crown through all generations.
25 When the hay has been mown, and the new grass appears,
and the mountain greens have been gathered;
26 the lambs will provide your clothing,
the goats will sell for enough to buy a field,
27 and there will be enough goat’s milk
to [buy] food for you and your household
and maintenance for your servant-girls.