Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;
If you sit to sup at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you:
2 put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.
and apply your hand, knowing that it behoves you to prepare such [meats]: but if you are very insatiable,
3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food.
desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.
4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man; but refrain yourself in your wisdom.
5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
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.
6 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies,
Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says 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 yourself, nor eat your morsel with him:
8 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
9 Don’t speak 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 your wise words.
10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
Remove not the ancient landmarks; and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless:
11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
13 Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death. (Sheol h7585)
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.
Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;
16 Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.
17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear the LORD all day long.
Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.
18 Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.
For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat;
Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:
21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in 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 who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!
Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
[My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful 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 strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot 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 Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out 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 Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.
32 In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
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.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.
Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.
34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.
35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”
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?
