Proverbs 23
1 When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.
3 Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful food.
4 Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
Labour not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom.
5 Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
Will you set your eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6 Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:
7 For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you.
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, says he to you; but his heart is not with you.
8 The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.
9 Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11 For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with you.
12 Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
Apply your heart unto instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.
Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
17 Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
18 For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
Hear you, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
20 Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
21 For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed.
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
22 Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.
Hearken unto your father that brings forth you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
23 Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that bring forths a wise child shall have joy of him.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bare you shall rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the transgressors among men.
29 Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes?
30 Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31 Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:
Look not you upon the wine when it is red, when it gives his colour in the cup, when it moves itself aright.
32 In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
Yea, you shall be as he that lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lies upon the top of a mast.
35 They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.
They have stricken me, shall you say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
