Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
2 And you have put a knife to your throat, If you [are] a man of appetite.
and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are 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 you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
5 For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
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.
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 you 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 yourself, nor eat your 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 your 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 your 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 you.
12 Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your 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 you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
16 And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
and your 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 your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your 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 your 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.
Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your 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 your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
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 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 you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall 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 struck 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 your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your 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 you shall 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 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?
