Proverbs 23
1 When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face.
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, thou shalt consider well, what is before thee;
2 And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.
And shalt put a knife to thy throat, if, of great appetite, thou art:
3 Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.
Do not crave his dainties, for, the same, are deceitful food.
4 Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.
Do not toil to get wealth, of thine own understanding, forbear:
5 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.
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 Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:
Do not eat the food of him that hath a begrudging eye, neither crave thou his dainties;
7 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.
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 meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words.
As for thy morsel thou hast eaten, thou shalt vomit it, so shalt thou waste thy things so sweet.
9 Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.
In the ears of a dullard, do not speak, for he will despise the good sense of thy words.
10 Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:
Do not move back the ancient boundary, and, into the fields of the fatherless, do not enter;
11 For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.
For, their near of kin, is strong, he, will plead their cause with thee.
12 Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge.
Bring, to correction, thy heart, and thine ears, to the sayings of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall 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 thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:
My son! if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.
So shall my reins exult, when thy lips speak the things that are right.
17 Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:
Let not thy heart be envious of sinners, only of the reverence of Yahweh, all day long;
18 Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.
For surely there is a future, and, thine expectation, shall not be cut off.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.
Hear, thou, my son, and be wise, and lead forward, in duty, thy heart.
20 Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:
Do not be among them who tipple with wine, —among them who are gluttons;
21 Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.
For, the tippler and the glutton, shall come to poverty, and, rags, shall Slumber put on!
22 Hearken to thy father, that beget thee: and despise not thy mother when she is 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 just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.
Greatly shall exult, the father of a righteous man, and, he that begetteth a wise son, shall rejoice in him:
25 Let thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.
Rejoice shall thy father and thy mother, yea she, shall exult, who bare thee.
26 My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep 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 lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.
Yea, she, as for prey, lieth in wait, and, the treacherous among mankind, she causeth to abound.
29 Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath 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 Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink of their cups.
They who tarry over wine, they who go in to search for mixed wine.
31 Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,
Do not look on wine when it becometh red, when it giveth in the cup its sparkle, glideth down smoothly.
32 But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.
Its after effect, is that, like a serpent, it biteth, and, like a viper, it doth sting.
33 Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
Thine eyes, will see strange women, and, thy heart, will speak perverse things:
34 And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost.
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 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?
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!
