Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,
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, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power.
3 Have no desire to his delicacies, seeing it [is] lying food.
Do not desire his foods, in which 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.
Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
5 For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
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 Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his delicacies,
Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
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, 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 You vomit up your morsel you have eaten, And have marred your words that [are] sweet.
The foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.
Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.
10 Do not remove a border of ancient times, And do not enter into fields of the fatherless,
Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.
11 For their Redeemer [is] strong, He pleads their cause with you.
For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.
12 Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a youth, When you strike him with a rod he does 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 My son, if your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.
16 And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.
17 Do not let your heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of YHWH all the day.
Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.
18 For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, And make your heart blessed in the way,
Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.
20 Do not become drunk with wine, Among gluttonous ones 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 the drunkard and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clothes with rags.
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 to your father, who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she has become old.
Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,
Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.
24 The father of the righteous rejoices greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoices in him.
The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.
25 Your father and your mother rejoice, Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.
Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
26 Give, my son, your heart to me, And let your eyes watch my ways.
My son, offer me your heart, and let your eyes keep to 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 pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.
28 She also, as catching prey, lies in wait, And she increases the treacherous among men.
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 has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaint? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?
30 Those lingering by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.
Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?
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.
Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,
32 Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, And it stings as a viper.
but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.
33 Your eyes see strange women, And your heart speaks perverse things.
Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.
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 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 “They struck me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake—I seek it yet again!”
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?”
