Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
If thou sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before thee:
2 And you have put a knife to your throat, If you [are] a man of appetite.
and apply thine hand, knowing that it behoves thee to prepare such [meats]: but if thou art very insatiable,
3 Have no desire to his delicacies, seeing it [is] lying food.
desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
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.
If thou art poor, measure not thyself with a rich man; but refrain thyself in thy wisdom.
5 For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
If thou shouldest fix thine 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 Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his delicacies,
Sup not with an envious man, neither desire thou his meats:
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.
so he eats and drinks as if any one should swallow a hair, and do not bring him in to thyself, nor eat thy morsel with him:
8 You vomit up your morsel you have eaten, And have marred your words that [are] sweet.
for he will vomit it up, and spoil thy fair words.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.
Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at thy wise words.
10 Do not remove a border of ancient times, And do not enter into fields of the fatherless,
Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 For their Redeemer [is] strong, He pleads their cause with you.
for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with thee.
12 Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
Apply thine heart to instruction, and prepare thine ears for words of discretion.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a youth, When you strike him with a rod he does not die.
Refrain not from chastening a child; for if thou beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
For thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from death. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
Son, if thy heart be wise, thou shalt also gladden my heart;
16 And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
and thy lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
17 Do not let your heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of YHWH all the day.
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
For if thou shouldest keep these things, thou shalt have posterity; and thine hope shall not be removed.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, And make your heart blessed in the way,
Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of thine heart.
20 Do not become drunk with wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh,
Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clothes with rags.
for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
22 Listen to your father, who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she has become old.
Hearken, [my] son, to thy father which begot thee, and despise not [thy mother] because she is grown old.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,
24 The father of the righteous rejoices greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoices in him.
A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 Your father and your mother rejoice, Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.
Let thy father and thy mother rejoice over thee, and let her that bore thee be glad.
26 Give, my son, your heart to me, And let your eyes watch my ways.
[My] son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27 For a harlot [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, as catching prey, lies in wait, And she increases the treacherous 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 complaint? 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 Those lingering by the wine, Those going in to search out 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 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.
For if thou shouldest set thine eyes on bowls and cups, thou shalt afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, And it stings as a viper.
But at last [such a one] stretches himself out as one smitten by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent.
33 Your eyes see strange women, And your heart speaks perverse things.
Whenever thine eyes shall behold a strange woman, then thy mouth shall speak perverse 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.
And thou shalt lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
35 “They struck me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake—I seek it yet again!”
And thou shalt say, They smote 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?
