Proverbs 23
1 If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
2 and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
For thou puttest a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man of a craving desire.
3 desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
Do not long for his savory meats; they are deceitful food.
4 If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
Fatigue thyself not to become rich; because thou hast understanding, forbear.
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.
When thou lettest merely thy eyes fly over it, it is no more: for it will ever make itself wings: like an eagle will it fly toward heaven.
6 Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
Eat not the bread of a man with an evil eye, and do not long for his savory meats;
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 as though there were a division in his soul, so doth he act: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8 for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou spit out, and thou hast wasted thy pleasant words.
9 Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
Speak not before the ears of a fool; for he will despise the intelligence of thy words.
10 Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
Remove not the ancient landmark, and into the fields of the fatherless must thou not enter;
11 for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
For their redeemer is strong; he will indeed plead their cause with thee.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thy ears to the sayings of knowledge.
13 Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
Withhold not from a lad correction; for if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
Thou wilt indeed beat him with the rod; but thou wilt deliver his soul from perdition. (Sheol h7585)
15 Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
My son, If thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
And my reins shall exult when thy lips speak what is equitable.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
Let not thy heart be envious against sinners; but [remain] in the fear of the lord all the time.
18 For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
For surely there is a future, and thy hope will not be cut off.
19 Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
Hear thou, my son, and become wise, and guide thy heart on the right way.
20 Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
Be not among those that drink wine immoderately, among those that over-indulge in eating flesh:
21 for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth a man in rags.
22 Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
Hearken unto thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother although she be old.
Buy the truth and sell it not; [also] wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
The father of the righteous will be greatly glad, and he that begetteth a wise child will have joy through him.
25 Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
Let [then] thy father and thy mother rejoice, and let her that hath born thee be glad.
26 [My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
Give, my son, thy heart unto me, and let thy eyes watch my ways.
27 For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
For a harlot is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow well.
28 For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
She also lieth in wait like a robber, and she increaseth the treacherous among men.
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 hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath quarrels? who hath complaints? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of 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.
They that tarry late over the wine: they that come to seek for mixed drink.
31 For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
Do not look on the wine when it looketh red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it glideth down so readily.
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.
At the last it will bite like a serpent, and like a basilisk will it sting.
33 Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
Thy eyes will see strange forms, and thy heart will speak perverse things.
34 And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
And thou wilt be like one that lieth down in the heart of the sea, or as he that lieth on the top of a mast.
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?
“They smote me, [but] I suffered no pain; they struck me hard, [but] I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will continue to seek it again.”
