Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you,
If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
2 and put a knife to your throat if you are a person who likes to eat a lot of food.
and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
3 Do not crave his delicacies, for it is the food of lies.
desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
4 Do not work too hard to gain wealth; be wise enough to know when to stop.
If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
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.
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 food of one with an evil eye— and do not crave his delicacies,
Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you 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.
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 will vomit up the little you have eaten and you will have wasted your compliments.
for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise 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 move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of orphans,
Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 for their Redeemer is strong and he will plead their case against you.
for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
13 Do not withhold instruction from a child, for if you discipline him, he will 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 is wise, then my heart also will be glad;
Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
16 my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of Yahweh all the day.
Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off.
For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
19 Hear—you!—my son, and be wise and direct your heart in the way.
Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
20 Do not associate with drunkards, or with gluttonous eaters of meat,
Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 for the drunkard and the glutton become poor and slumber will clothe them 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 is old.
Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
23 Buy the truth, but do not sell it; buy wisdom, 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.
A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad and let her who bore you rejoice.
Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.
[My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an immoral woman is a narrow well.
For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
28 She lies in wait like a robber and she increases the number of the treacherous among humanity.
For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has fights? Who has complaining? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has bloodshot 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 who linger over wine, those who try the 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 look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 In the last it bites like a serpent and it stings like an adder.
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 will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things.
Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
34 You will be as one who sleeps on the high seas or lies 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 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 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?
