The Precepts of Ptah-hetep & the Maxims of Ani

Two Egyptian instruction-books — a father teaching a son how to live. Budge notes they are "remarkably like" the Book of Proverbs. The parallels are specific: "If thou art one of a company seated to eat in the house of a man who is greater than thyself, take what he giveth thee … Look at what is before thee" (Proverbs 23:1–2); "Be not haughty because of thy knowledge" (Proverbs 3:7); Ani's "Beware of the woman in the street … she is like a deep stream the windings of which are unknown" (Proverbs 5:3–6; 7:5–27).

The closest parallel of all is not quoted here — the Instruction of Amenemope (c. 1200 BC), whose thirty chapters line up with Proverbs 22:17–24:22 closely enough that most scholars think the Hebrew editor adapted it directly ("Have I not written for thee thirty sayings", Proverbs 22:20). No public-domain translation of Amenemope exists to host here.