Proverbs23

¹ When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you,

² And put a knife to your throat If you are a person of great appetite.

³ Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food.

⁴ Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; Stop dwelling on it.

⁵ When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

⁶ Do not eat the bread of a selfish person; Or desire his delicacies;

⁷ For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.

⁸ You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten And waste your compliments.

⁹ Do not speak to be heard by a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Do not move the ancient boundary Or go into the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you.

¹² Apply your heart to discipline, And your ears to words of knowledge.

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

¹⁴ You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart also will be glad,

¹⁶ And my innermost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always.

¹⁸ Certainly there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

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

²⁰ Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

²¹ For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.

²² Listen to your father, who fathered you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

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

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

²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

²⁶ Give me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.

²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit, And a strange woman is a narrow well.

²⁸ Certainly she lurks as a robber, And increases the treacherous among mankind.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has red eyes?

³⁰ Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine.

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

³² In the end it bites like a snake And stings like a viper.

³³ Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will say perverse things.

³⁴ And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.

³⁵ “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When will I awake? I will seek another drink.”