Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
When thou sittest to eate with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee,
2 And you have put a knife to your throat, If you [are] a man of appetite.
And put the knife to thy throte, if thou be a man giuen to the appetite.
3 Have no desire to his delicacies, seeing it [is] lying food.
Be not desirous of his deintie meates: for it is a deceiuable meate.
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.
Trauaile not too much to be rich: but cease from thy wisdome.
5 For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
Wilt thou cast thine eyes vpon it, which is nothing? for riches taketh her to her wings, as an eagle, and flyeth into the heauen.
6 Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his delicacies,
Eate thou not the bread of him that hath an euil eye, neither desire his deintie meates.
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 though he thought it in his heart, so will hee say vnto thee, Eate and drinke: but his heart is not with thee.
8 You vomit up your morsel you have eaten, And have marred your words that [are] sweet.
Thou shalt vomit thy morsels that thou hast eaten, and thou shalt lose thy sweete wordes.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.
Speake not in the eares of a foole: for hee will despise the wisdome of thy wordes.
10 Do not remove a border of ancient times, And do not enter into fields of the fatherless,
Remooue not the ancient boundes, and enter not into the fieldes of the fatherlesse.
11 For their Redeemer [is] strong, He pleads their cause with you.
For he that redeemeth them, is mightie: he will defend their cause against thee.
12 Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
Apply thine heart to instruction, and thine eares to the wordes of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a youth, When you strike him with a rod he does not die.
Withhold not correction from the childe: if thou smite him with the rodde, he shall not die.
Thou shalt smite him with the rodde, and shalt deliuer his soule from hell. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
My sonne, if thine heart be wise, mine heart shall reioyce, and I also.
16 And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
And my reynes shall reioyce, when thy lips speake righteous things.
17 Do not let your heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of YHWH all the day.
Let not thine heart bee enuious against sinners: but let it bee in the feare of the Lord continually.
18 For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
For surely there is an ende, and thy hope shall not be cut off.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, And make your heart blessed in the way,
O thou my sonne, heare, and bee wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
20 Do not become drunk with wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh,
Keepe not company with drunkards, nor with gluttons.
21 For the drunkard and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clothes with rags.
For the drunkard and the glutton shall bee poore, and the sleeper shalbe clothed with ragges.
22 Listen to your father, who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she has become old.
Obey thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother when she is olde.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,
Bye the trueth, but sell it not: likewise wisdome, and instruction, and vnderstanding.
24 The father of the righteous rejoices greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoices in him.
The father of the righteous shall greatly reioyce, and hee that begetteth a wise childe, shall haue ioy of him.
25 Your father and your mother rejoice, Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall reioyce.
26 Give, my son, your heart to me, And let your eyes watch my ways.
My sonne, giue mee thine heart, and let thine eyes delite in my wayes.
27 For a harlot [is] a deep ditch, And a strange woman [is] a narrow pit.
For a whore is as a deepe ditche, and a strange woman is as a narrowe pitte.
28 She also, as catching prey, lies in wait, And she increases the treacherous among men.
Also she lyeth in wait as for a praye, and she increaseth the transgressers 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?
To whome is woe? to whome is sorowe? to whom is strife? to whom is murmuring? to whom are woundes without cause? and to whome is the rednesse of the eyes?
30 Those lingering by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.
Euen to them that tarie long at the wine, to them that goe, and seeke mixt 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.
Looke not thou vpon the wine, when it is red, and when it sheweth his colour in the cup, or goeth downe pleasantly.
32 Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, And it stings as a viper.
In the ende thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrise.
33 Your eyes see strange women, And your heart speaks perverse things.
Thine eyes shall looke vpon strange women, and thine heart shall speake lewde 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 bee as one that sleepeth in the middes of the sea, and as hee that sleepeth in the toppe of the maste.
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 haue stricken mee, shalt thou say, but I was not sicke: they haue beaten mee, but I knew not, when I awoke: therefore will I seeke it yet still.
