Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you,
When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face.
2 and put a knife to your throat if you are a person who likes to eat a lot of food.
And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.
3 Do not crave his delicacies, for it is the food of lies.
Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.
4 Do not work too hard to gain wealth; be wise enough to know when to stop.
Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.
5 Will you let your eyes light upon it? It will be gone, for it will surely take up wings like an eagle and fly off to the sky.
Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.
6 Do not eat the food of one with an evil eye— and do not crave his delicacies,
Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:
7 for he is the kind of man who counts the price of the food. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
Because like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.
8 You will vomit up the little you have eaten and you will have wasted your compliments.
The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words.
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.
10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of orphans,
Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:
11 for their Redeemer is strong and he will plead their case against you.
For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.
12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold instruction from a child, for if you discipline him, he will not die.
Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart also will be glad;
My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:
16 my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of Yahweh all the day.
Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:
18 Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off.
Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.
19 Hear—you!—my son, and be wise and direct your heart in the way.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.
20 Do not associate with drunkards, or with gluttonous eaters of meat,
Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:
21 for the drunkard and the glutton become poor and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.
22 Listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Hearken to thy father, that beget thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, but do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous person will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will be glad in him.
The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad and let her who bore you rejoice.
Let thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.
26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.
My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an immoral woman is a narrow well.
For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 She lies in wait like a robber and she increases the number of the treacherous among humanity.
She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has fights? Who has complaining? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has bloodshot eyes?
Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30 Those who linger over wine, those who try the mixed wine.
Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink of their cups.
31 Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,
32 In the last it bites like a serpent and it stings like an adder.
But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.
33 Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things.
Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
34 You will be as one who sleeps on the high seas or lies on the top of a mast.
And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost.
35 “They hit me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When will I wake up? I will seek another drink.”
And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake, and find wine again?
