Proverbs 23
1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you,
If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
2 and put a knife to your throat if you possess a great appetite.
and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
3 Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
If you should fix your eye upon him, he will disappear; for wings like an eagle's are prepared for him, and he returns to the house of his master.
6 Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies;
Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
7 for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
so he eats and drinks as if any one should swallow a hair, and do not bring him in to yourself, nor eat your morsel with him:
8 You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
9 Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.
for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will indeed rejoice.
Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
16 My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.
Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.
Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.
for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
23 Invest in truth and never sell it— in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
24 The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him.
A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 May your father and mother be glad, and may she who gave you birth rejoice!
Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.
[My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
28 Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.
For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?
Who [has] woe? who trouble? who [has] quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who [has] bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid?
30 Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks.
Are not those of them that stay long at wine? [are] not [those] of them that haunt [the places] where banquets are? Be not drunk with wine; but converse with just men, and converse [with them] openly.
31 Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
But at last [such a one] stretches himself out as one struck by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
34 You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:
And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
35 “They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When can I wake up to search for another drink?”
And you shall say, They struck me, and I was not pained; and they mocked me, and I knew it not: when will it be morning, that I may go and seek those with whom I may go in company?
