Proverbs 23
1 When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy 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 thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.
And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
3 Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.
Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
4 Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.
Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
5 Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.
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 Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:
Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
7 Because like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.
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 meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words.
The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
9 Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.
Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.
10 Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not 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 near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.
For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
12 Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge.
Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall 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 thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:
My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
16 And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.
And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
17 Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:
Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
18 Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.
For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.
Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
20 Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:
Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
21 Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with 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 Hearken to thy father, that beget thee: and despise not thy 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 Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and 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 rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy 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 thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.
Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
26 My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
27 For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
28 She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.
Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
29 Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
30 Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink of their cups.
Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
31 Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in 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 will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
33 Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
34 And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost.
Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
35 And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake, and find wine again?
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.
