Proverbs 23
1 When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,
When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
2 and put a knife to your throat, if, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power.
And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
3 Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.
Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
4 Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
5 Do not raise your eyes toward wealth that you are not able to have. For they will make themselves wings, like those of an eagle, and they will fly in the sky.
Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
6 Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
7 For, like a seer and an interpreter of dreams, he presumes what he does not know. “Eat and drink,” he will say to you; and his mind is not with you.
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.
8 The foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.
The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
9 Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.
Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.
Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
11 For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.
For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
12 Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.
Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Do not be willing to take away discipline from a child. For if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
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.
Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.
My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
16 And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.
And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
17 Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.
Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
18 For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.
For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.
Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
20 Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh.
Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
21 For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.
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.
22 Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.
Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.
23 Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.
Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.
24 The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.
The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.
25 Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
26 My son, offer me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
27 For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.
For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
28 She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.
Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
29 Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?
Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
30 Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?
Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
31 Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,
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:
32 but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
33 Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
34 And you will be like someone sleeping in the middle of the sea, and like a pilot, fast asleep, who has lost his hold on the helm.
Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
35 And you will say: “They have beaten me, but I did not feel pain. They have dragged me, and I did not realize it. When will I awaken and find more wine?”
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.
