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 diligently what 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 art 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.
Labour not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.
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 thy eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make to themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6 Sup not with an envious man, neither desire you his meats:
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his delicacies:
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 heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8 for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose 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 fool: 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 old 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 shall plead their cause with thee.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.
Apply thy heart to instruction, and thy 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 hell. (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.
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, 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 the LORD all the day long.
18 For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.
For surely there is an end; and thy expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Hear, [my] son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide 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 gluttonous 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 shall clothe a man with rags.
22 Listen, [my] son, to your father which begot you, and despise not [your mother] because she is grown old.
Hearken to thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 A righteous father brings up [his children] well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
25 Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice.
26 [My] son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
My son, give me thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my ways.
27 For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.
For an harlot is a deep ditch; and an adulteress 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 for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors 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 hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath 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 seek 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 thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
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.
Thy eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter perverse 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, or as he that lieth 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 stricken me, shalt thou 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.
