Proverbs 23

1 When you sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

2 And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.

3 Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat.

4 Labour not to be rich; cease from your own wisdom.

5 Wilt you set your eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

6 Eat you not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, nor desire you his dainty meats;

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink”, saith he to you, but his heart is not with you.

8 The morsel which you have eaten shalt you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.

9 Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Remove not the old landmark, and enter not into the fields of the fatherless;

11 For their Redeemer is mighty; He shall plead their cause with you.

12 Apply your heart unto instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

13 Withhold not correction from the child, for if you beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

14 You shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from sheol.

15 My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.

17 Let not your heart envy sinners, but be you in the fear of יהוה all the day long.

18 For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.

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

20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh;

21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

22 Hearken unto your father that begat you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice; and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

25 Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bare you shall rejoice.

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

27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

28 She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

29 Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?

30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

31 Look not you upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

33 Your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things.

34 Yea, you 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 They have stricken me, shalt you 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.