Proverbs 23:20–34

²⁰Do not be among drinkers of wine,

among gluttonous eaters of their meat.^p

²¹For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor,

and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.

²²Listen to your father—he who gave you life,^q

and do not despise your mother when^r she is old.

²³Buy truth and do not sell it,

wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will surely rejoice;

he who bears a wise person will be happy with him.

²⁵May your father and your mother be glad,

and may she who bore you rejoice.

²⁶My child, may you give your heart^s to me,

and may your eyes delight in my ways.

²⁷For a deep pit is a prostitute,^t

and a narrow well is an adulteress.^u

²⁸She is also like a robber lying in wait,

and the faithless among mankind she increases.

²⁹To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint?

To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?

³⁰To those who linger over wine,

to those who come to try mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles^v on the cup,

going down smoothly.

³²In the end,^w it will bite like a serpent,

and it will sting like an adder.

³³Your eyes will see strange things,

and your heart^x will speak perverse things.

³⁴And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea,

and like him who lies down on top of a mast.