Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.
and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful food.
desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
4 Labour not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom.
If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
5 Will you set your eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
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 Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:
Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, says he to you; but his heart is not with you.
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 The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.
for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
10 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with you.
for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart unto instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
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 long.
Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.
For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
19 Hear you, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
22 Hearken unto your father that brings forth you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that bring forths a wise child shall have joy of him.
A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bare you shall rejoice.
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.
[My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
28 She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the transgressors among men.
For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
29 Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes?
Who [has] woe? who trouble? who [has] quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who [has] bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid?
30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
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 Look not you upon the wine when it is red, when it gives his colour in the cup, when it moves itself aright.
For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
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 your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things.
Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
34 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.
And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
35 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.
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?
