Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
If thou sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before thee:
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.
and apply thine hand, knowing that it behoves thee to prepare such [meats]: but if thou art very insatiable,
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
4 Labor not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom.
If thou art poor, measure not thyself with a rich man; but refrain thyself in thy wisdom.
5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
If thou shouldest fix thine 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 Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:
Sup not with an envious man, neither desire thou his meats:
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, says he 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 thyself, nor eat thy morsel with him:
8 The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.
for he will vomit it up, and spoil thy fair words.
9 Speak not in the ears 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 thy wise words.
10 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with you.
for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with thee.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
Apply thine heart to instruction, and prepare thine ears for words of discretion.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
Refrain not from chastening a child; for if thou beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
For thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from death. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
Son, if thy heart be wise, thou shalt also gladden my heart;
16 Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
and thy lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.
For if thou shouldest keep these things, thou shalt have posterity; and thine hope shall not be removed.
19 Hear you, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of thine heart.
20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man 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 that begat you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
Hearken, [my] son, to thy father which begot thee, and despise not [thy mother] because she is grown old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begets a wise child shall have joy of him.
A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bore you shall rejoice.
Let thy father and thy mother rejoice over thee, and let her that bore thee be glad.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
[My] son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
28 She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the transgressors among men.
For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
29 Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of 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 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek 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 Look not you on the wine when it is red, when it gives his color in the cup, when it moves itself aright.
For if thou shouldest set thine eyes on bowls and cups, thou shalt afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
But at last [such a one] stretches himself out as one smitten by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent.
33 Your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things.
Whenever thine eyes shall behold a strange woman, then thy mouth shall speak perverse things.
34 Yes, you shall be as he that lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he that lies on the top of a mast.
And thou shalt lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
35 They have stricken me, shall you say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
And thou shalt say, They smote 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?
