Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, Diligently consider that which [is] before you,
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, thou shalt consider well, what is before thee;
2 And you have put a knife to your throat, If you [are] a man of appetite.
And shalt put a knife to thy throat, if, of great appetite, thou art:
3 Have no desire to his delicacies, seeing it [is] lying food.
Do not crave his dainties, for, the same, are deceitful food.
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 toil to get wealth, of thine own understanding, forbear:
5 For wealth makes wings to itself, It flies to the heavens as an eagle.
Wilt thou let thine eye fly thereupon, when it is nothing? for it will, surely make, itself wings, Like an eagle, will it wing its way across the heavens.
6 Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his delicacies,
Do not eat the food of him that hath a begrudging eye, neither crave thou his dainties;
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, just as he hath thought in his own mind, so, he is: Eat and drink! he may say to thee, but, his heart, is not with thee.
8 You vomit up your morsel you have eaten, And have marred your words that [are] sweet.
As for thy morsel thou hast eaten, thou shalt vomit it, so shalt thou waste thy things so sweet.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.
In the ears of a dullard, do not speak, for he will despise the good sense of thy words.
10 Do not remove a border of ancient times, And do not enter into fields of the fatherless,
Do not move back the ancient boundary, and, into the fields of the fatherless, do not enter;
11 For their Redeemer [is] strong, He pleads their cause with you.
For, their near of kin, is strong, he, will plead their cause with thee.
12 Bring your heart to instruction, And your ear to sayings of knowledge.
Bring, to correction, thy heart, and thine ears, to the sayings of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a youth, When you strike him with a rod he does not die.
Do not withhold, from a child, correction, When thou smitest him with the rod, he shall not die:
Thou, with the rod, shalt smite him, and, his soul from hades, shalt thou deliver. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart has been wise, My heart rejoices, even mine,
My son! if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 And my reins exult when your lips speak uprightly.
So shall my reins exult, when thy lips speak the things that are right.
17 Do not let your heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of YHWH all the day.
Let not thy heart be envious of sinners, only of the reverence of Yahweh, all day long;
18 For is there a posterity? Then your hope is not cut off.
For surely there is a future, and, thine expectation, shall not be cut off.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, And make your heart blessed in the way,
Hear, thou, my son, and be wise, and lead forward, in duty, thy heart.
20 Do not become drunk with wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh,
Do not be among them who tipple with wine, —among them who are gluttons;
21 For the drunkard and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clothes with rags.
For, the tippler and the glutton, shall come to poverty, and, rags, shall Slumber put on!
22 Listen to your father, who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she has become old.
Hearken to thy father here, who begat thee, and despise not, when she is old, thy mother.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,
Truth, buy thou, but do not sell, wisdom, and correction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous rejoices greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoices in him.
Greatly shall exult, the father of a righteous man, and, he that begetteth a wise son, shall rejoice in him:
25 Your father and your mother rejoice, Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.
Rejoice shall thy father and thy mother, yea she, shall exult, who bare thee.
26 Give, my son, your heart to me, And let your eyes watch my ways.
Oh give, my son, thy mind unto me, 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 deep chasm, is the unchaste woman, and, a narrow pit, the female unknown;
28 She also, as catching prey, lies in wait, And she increases the treacherous among men.
Yea, she, as for prey, lieth in wait, and, the treacherous among mankind, she causeth to abound.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaint? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
Who hath woe? Who hath outcry of pain? Who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? Who hath needless wounds? Who hath dullness of eyes?
30 Those lingering by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.
They who tarry over wine, they who go in to search 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.
Do not look on wine when it becometh red, when it giveth in the cup its sparkle, glideth down smoothly.
32 Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, And it stings as a viper.
Its after effect, is that, like a serpent, it biteth, and, like a viper, it doth sting.
33 Your eyes see strange women, And your heart speaks perverse things.
Thine eyes, will see strange women, and, thy heart, will 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.
So shalt thou become, as one lying down in the heart of the sea, —or as one lying down on the top of the mastgear:
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 smote me—I felt no pain, They struck me down—I noticed it not, —When shall I wake up? I will go on, I will seek it, again!
