8
Remove far from me vanity, and lying words. Give me neither beggary, nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life:
9
Lest perhaps being filled, I should be tempted to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or being compelled by poverty, I should steal, and forswear the name of my God.
10
Accuse not a servant to his master, lest he curse thee, and thou fall.
11
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
12
A generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness.
13
A generation, whose eyes are lofty, and their eyelids lifted up on high.
14
A generation that for teeth hath swords, and grindeth with their jaw teeth, to devour the needy from off the earth, and the poor from among men.
15
The horseleech hath two daughters that say: Bring, bring. There are three things that never are satisfied, and the fourth never saith: It is enough.
16
Hell and the mouth of the womb, and the earth which is not satisfied with water: and the fire never saith: It is enough.
17
The eye that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labour of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the brooks pick it out, and the young eagles eat it.
18
Three things are hard to me, and the fourth I am utterly ignorant of.