Proverbs 23
1 When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee:
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [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 meat.
4 Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine 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.
Wilt thou set thine 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 thou not the bread of [him that hath] an evil eye, neither desire thou 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 thinketh in his heart, so [is] he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart [is] not with thee.
8 The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
The morsel [which] thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy 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 thy 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 thee.
12 Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine 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] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt 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 thine 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 thy 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 thine heart envy sinners: but [be thou] 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 thine expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine 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 thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy 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 begetteth 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.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine 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 lieth in wait as [for] a prey, and increaseth 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 hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath 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 thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, [when] it moveth 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 biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine 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, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth 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, [shalt thou 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.
