Proverbs23

¹ When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you,

² and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.

³ Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

⁴ Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.

⁵ When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

⁶ Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,

⁷ for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. Eat and drink! he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸ You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.

⁹ Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.

¹⁰ Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹ for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.

¹² Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.

¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

¹⁴ If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.

¹⁶ My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.

¹⁸ Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.

²⁰ Be not drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat,

²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

²² Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³ Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

²⁵ Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸ She lies in wait like a robber and increases the traitors among mankind.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

³⁰ Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.

³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

³² In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.

³⁴ You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.

³⁵ They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.