12. Store up almsgiving in your treasury,and it will save you from every evil.
13. Better than a mighty shield and a sturdy spearit will fight for you against the enemy.
14. A good person will be surety for a neighbor,but whoever has lost a sense of shame will fail him.
15. Do not forget the kindness of your backer,for he has given his very life for you.
16. A sinner will turn the favor of a pledge into misfortune,
17. and the ungrateful will abandon his rescuer.
18. Going surety has ruined many who were prosperousand tossed them about like waves of the sea;It has exiled the prominentand sent them wandering through foreign lands.
19. The sinner will come to grief through surety,and whoever undertakes too much will fall into lawsuits.
20. Help your neighbor according to your means,but take care lest you fall yourself.
21. Life’s prime needs are water, bread, and clothing,and also a house for decent privacy.
22. Better is the life of the poor under the shadow of their own roofthan sumptuous banquets among strangers.
23. Whether little or much, be content with what you have:then you will hear no reproach as a parasite.
24. It is a miserable life to go from house to house,for where you are a guest you dare not open your mouth.
25. You will entertain and provide drink without being thanked;besides, you will hear these bitter words:
26. “Come here, you parasite, set the table,let me eat the food you have there!
27. Go away, you parasite, for one more worthy;for my relative’s visit I need the room!”
28. Painful things to a sensitive personare rebuke as a parasite and insults from creditors.