< Proverbs 23 >
1 If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
2 and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
3 desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
4 If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
5 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 Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
7 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 for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
9 Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
10 Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
13 Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death. (Sheol )
15 Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
16 and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
19 Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
20 Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
22 Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
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24 A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 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 observe my ways.
27 For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
28 For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
29 Who [has] woe? who trouble? who [has] quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who [has] bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid?
30 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 For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 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 Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
34 And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
35 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?
