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 sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently 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 be a man given to appetite.
3 Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.
Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful food.
4 Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
Labour not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom.
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.
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 eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:
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 he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, says he 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 morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.
9 Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11 For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.
For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with you.
12 Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.
Apply your heart unto instruction, 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.
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 soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.
My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
17 Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.
Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
18 For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.
For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.
Hear you, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the 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.
Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
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 the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
22 Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.
Hearken unto your father that brings forth you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
23 Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in 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 joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bare you shall rejoice.
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 observe my ways.
27 For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.
For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.
She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the transgressors 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 has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes?
30 Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31 Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,
Look not you upon the wine when it is red, when it gives his colour in the cup, when it moves itself aright.
32 but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.
At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.
your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse 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.
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 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 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.
