Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
2 And you have put a knife to your throat, If you [are] a man of appetite.
And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
3 Have no desire to his delicacies, seeing it [is] lying food.
Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
4 Do not labor to make wealth, Cease from your own understanding, Do you cause your eyes to fly on it? Then it is not.
Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
5 For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
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 Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his delicacies,
Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
7 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.
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 You vomit up your morsel you have eaten, And have marred your words that [are] sweet.
The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.
Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not remove a border of ancient times, And do not enter into fields 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 Redeemer [is] strong, He pleads their cause with you.
For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
12 Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a youth, When you strike him with a rod he does 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 your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
16 And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
17 Do not let your heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of YHWH all the day.
Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
18 For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, And make your heart blessed in the way,
Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
20 Do not become drunk with wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh,
Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
21 For the drunkard and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clothes 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 Listen to your father, who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she has become 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 righteous rejoices greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoices 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 Your father and your mother rejoice, Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.
Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
26 Give, my son, your heart to me, And let your eyes watch 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 also, as catching prey, lies in wait, And she increases the treacherous among men.
Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaint? Who has wounds without cause? Who has 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 Those lingering by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.
Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
31 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.
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 Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, And it stings as a viper.
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
33 Your eyes see strange women, And your heart speaks perverse things.
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
34 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.
Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
35 “They struck me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake—I seek it yet 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.
