Proverbs 23
1 If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
2 and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
And you have put a knife to your throat, If you [are] a man of appetite.
3 desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
Have no desire to his delicacies, seeing it [is] lying food.
4 If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
Do not labor to make wealth, Cease from your own understanding, Do you cause your eyes to fly on it? Then it is not.
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.
For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
6 Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his delicacies,
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 he has thought in his soul, so he [is]. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, And his heart [is] not with you.
8 for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
You vomit up your morsel you have eaten, And have marred your words that [are] sweet.
9 Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.
10 Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
Do not remove a border of ancient times, And do not enter into fields of the fatherless,
11 for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
For their Redeemer [is] strong, He pleads their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
13 Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
Do not withhold discipline from a youth, When you strike him with a rod he does not die.
You strike him with a rod, And you deliver his soul from Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
15 Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
My son, if your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
16 and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
Do not let your heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of YHWH all the day.
18 For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
19 Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
Hear, my son, and be wise, And make your heart blessed in the way,
20 Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
Do not become drunk with wine, Among gluttonous ones of 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 glutton become poor, And drowsiness clothes with 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 begot you, And do not despise your mother when she has become old.
Buy truth, and do not sell, 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 rejoices greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoices in him.
25 Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
Your father and your mother rejoice, Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.
26 [My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
Give, my son, your heart to me, And let your 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 pit.
28 For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
She also, as catching prey, lies in wait, And she increases 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 has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaint? Who has wounds without cause? Who has 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.
Those lingering by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.
31 For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
Do not see wine when it shows itself red, When it gives its color in the cup, It goes up and down through the upright.
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.
Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, And it stings as a viper.
33 Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
Your eyes see strange women, And your heart speaks perverse things.
34 And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
And you have been as one lying down in the heart of the sea, And as one lying down 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 struck me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake—I seek it yet again!”
