Babylonian Proverbs

* A hostile act you shall not perform, that fear of vengeance (?) shall not consume you.

* You shall not do evil, that life (?) eternal you may obtain.

* Does a woman conceive when a virgin, or grow great without eating?

* If I put anything down it is snatched away; if I do more than is expected, who will repay me?

* He has dug a well where no water is, he has raised a husk without kernel.

* Does a marsh receive the price of its reeds, or fields the price of their vegetation?

* The strong live by their own wages; the weak by the wages of their children.

* He is altogether good, but he is clothed with darkness.

* The face of a toiling ox you shall not strike with a goad.

* My knees go, my feet are unwearied; but a fool has cut into my course.

* His ass I am; I am harnessed to a mule — a wagon I draw, to seek reeds and fodder I go forth.

* The life of day before yesterday has departed today.

* If the husk is not right, the kernel is not right, it will not produce seed.

* The tall grain thrives, but what do we understand of it? The meager grain thrives, but what do we understand of it?

* The city whose weapons are not strong the enemy before its gates shall not be thrust through.

* If you go and take the field of an enemy, the enemy will come and take your field.

* Upon a glad heart oil is poured out of which no one knows.

* Friendship is for the day of trouble, posterity for the future.

* An ass in another city becomes its head.

* Writing is the mother of eloquence and the father of artists.

* Be gentle to your enemy as to an old oven.

* The gift of the king is the nobility of the exalted; the gift of the king is the favor of governors.

* Friendship in days of prosperity is servitude forever.

* There is strife where servants are, slander where anointers anoint.

* When you see the gain of the fear of god, exalt god and bless the king.