Proverbs 23
1 If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;
2 and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3 desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.
4 If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:
5 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.
wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.
6 Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.
7 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:
For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8 for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.
9 Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.
Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10 Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11 for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
Withhold not correction from the child; for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:
thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
15 Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;
16 and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day;
18 For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.
20 Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.
21 for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.
22 Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.
24 A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him:
25 Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.
26 [My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27 For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.
She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.
29 Who [has] woe? who trouble? who [has] quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who [has] bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid?
Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?
30 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.
— They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.
31 For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:
32 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.
at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33 Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;
34 And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:
35 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?
— “They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”
