Proverbs 23
1 If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,
2 and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
and put a knife to your throat, if, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power.
3 desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.
4 If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
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.
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.
6 Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
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:
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.
8 for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
The foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.
9 Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.
10 Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.
11 for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.
13 Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
Do not be willing to take away discipline from a child. For if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
You will strike him with the rod, and so shall you deliver his soul from Hell. (Sheol h7585)
15 Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.
16 and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.
18 For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.
19 Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.
20 Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh.
21 for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.
22 Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.
Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.
24 A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.
25 Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
26 [My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
My son, offer me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.
27 For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.
28 For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.
29 Who [has] woe? who trouble? who [has] quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who [has] bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid?
Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?
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.
Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?
31 For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,
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.
but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.
33 Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.
34 And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
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.
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?
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?”
