Proverbs 23
- When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you;
- And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite.
- Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food.
- Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!
- Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
- Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;
- For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
- The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste your pleasant words.
- Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
- Do not remove the ancient landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
- For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.
- Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge.
- Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
- You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell.
- My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice––indeed, I myself;
- Yes, my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things.
- Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;
- For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off.
- Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way.
- Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
- For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
- Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
- Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
- The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.
- Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who bore you rejoice.
- My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways.
- For a harlot is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well.
- She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men.
- Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
- Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.
- Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly;
- At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.
- Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.
- Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
- “They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”