Proverbs 23
1 When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, thou shalt consider well, what is before thee;
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
And shalt put a knife to thy throat, if, of great appetite, thou art:
3 Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
Do not crave his dainties, for, the same, are deceitful food.
4 Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
Do not toil to get wealth, of thine own understanding, forbear:
5 Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
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 take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
Do not eat the food of him that hath a begrudging eye, neither crave thou his dainties;
7 For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but 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 The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
As for thy morsel thou hast eaten, thou shalt vomit it, so shalt thou waste thy things so sweet.
9 Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value 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 let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
Do not move back the ancient boundary, and, into the fields of the fatherless, do not enter;
11 For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
For, their near of kin, is strong, he, will plead their cause with thee.
12 Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
Bring, to correction, thy heart, and thine ears, to the sayings of knowledge.
13 Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.
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 becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
My son! if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
So shall my reins exult, when thy lips speak the things that are right.
17 Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
Let not thy heart be envious of sinners, only of the reverence of Yahweh, all day long;
18 For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
For surely there is a future, and, thine expectation, shall not be cut off.
19 Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
Hear, thou, my son, and be wise, and lead forward, in duty, thy heart.
20 Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
Do not be among them who tipple with wine, —among them who are gluttons;
21 For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed.
For, the tippler and the glutton, shall come to poverty, and, rags, shall Slumber put on!
22 Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.
Hearken to thy father here, who begat thee, and despise not, when she is old, thy mother.
23 Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.
Truth, buy thou, but do not sell, wisdom, and correction, and understanding.
24 The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.
Greatly shall exult, the father of a righteous man, and, he that begetteth a wise son, shall rejoice in him:
25 Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
Rejoice shall thy father and thy mother, yea she, shall exult, who bare thee.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
Oh give, my son, thy mind unto me, and let, thine eyes, observe, my ways;
27 For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
For, a deep chasm, is the unchaste woman, and, a narrow pit, the female unknown;
28 Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
Yea, she, as for prey, lieth in wait, and, the treacherous among mankind, she causeth to abound.
29 Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
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 who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
They who tarry over wine, they who go in to search for mixed wine.
31 Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:
Do not look on wine when it becometh red, when it giveth in the cup its sparkle, glideth down smoothly.
32 In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
Its after effect, is that, like a serpent, it biteth, and, like a viper, it doth sting.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
Thine eyes, will see strange women, and, thy heart, will speak perverse things:
34 Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
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 have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it 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!
