Proverbs 23

¹When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Thou considerest diligently that which is before thee, ²And thou hast put a knife to thy throat, If thou art a man of appetite. ³Have no desire to his dainties, seeing it is lying food.

⁴Labour not to make wealth, From thine own understanding cease, Dost thou cause thine eyes to fly upon it? Then it is not. ⁵For wealth maketh to itself wings, As an eagle it flieth to the heavens.

⁶Eat not the bread of an evil eye, And have no desire to his dainties, ⁷For as he hath thought in his soul, so is he, ‘Eat and drink,’ saith he to thee, And his heart is not with thee. ⁸Thy morsel thou hast eaten thou dost vomit up, And hast marred thy words that are sweet.

⁹In the ears of a fool speak not, For he treadeth on the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰Remove not a border of olden times, And into fields of the fatherless enter not, ¹¹For their Redeemer is strong, He doth plead their cause with thee.

¹²Bring in to instruction thy heart, And thine ear to sayings of knowledge. ¹³Withhold not from a youth chastisement, When thou smitest him with a rod he dieth not. ¹⁴Thou with a rod smitest him, And his soul from Sheol thou deliverest. ¹⁵My son, if thy heart hath been wise, My heart rejoiceth, even mine, ¹⁶And my reins exult when thy lips speak uprightly.

¹⁷Let not thy heart be envious at sinners, But—in the fear of Jehovah all the day. ¹⁸For, is there a posterity? Then thy hope is not cut off.

¹⁹Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And make happy in the way thy heart, ²⁰Be not thou among quaffers of wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh, ²¹For the quaffer and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clotheth with rags. ²²Hearken to thy father, who begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she hath become old. ²³Truth buy, and sell not, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding, ²⁴The father of the righteous rejoiceth greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoiceth in him. ²⁵Rejoice doth thy father and thy mother, Yea, she that bare thee is joyful. ²⁶Give, my son, thy heart to me, And let thine eyes watch my ways. ²⁷For a harlot is a deep ditch, And a strange woman is a strait pit. ²⁸She also, as catching prey, lieth in wait, And the treacherous among men she increaseth.

²⁹Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? who hath plaint? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? ³⁰Those tarrying by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine. ³¹See not wine when it showeth itself red, When it giveth in the cup its colour, It goeth up and down through the upright. ³²Its latter end—as a serpent it biteth, And as a basilisk it stingeth. ³³Thine eyes see strange women, And thy heart speaketh perverse things. ³⁴And thou hast been as one lying down in the heart of the sea, And as one lying down on the top of a mast. ³⁵‘They smote me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake—I seek it yet again!’

Chapter 24