Proverbs 23

1When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider well him that is before thee;

2And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite.

3Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food.

4Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.

5Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it? it is gone; For riches certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.

6Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties;

7For as one that hath reckoned within himself, so is he: ‘Eat and drink’, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.

8The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.

9Speak not in the ears of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

10Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless;

11For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause with thee.

12Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge.

13Withhold not correction from the child; For though thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.

14Thou beatest him with the rod, And wilt deliver his soul from the nether-world.

15My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine;

16Yea, my reins will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.

17Let not thy heart envy sinners, But be in the fear of YHWH all the day;

18For surely there is a future; And thy hope shall not be cut off.

19Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way.

20Be not among winebibbers; Among gluttonous eaters of flesh;

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

22Hearken unto thy father that begot thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old.

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

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

25Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bore thee rejoice.

26My son, give me thy heart, And let thine eyes observe my ways.

27For a harlot is a deep ditch; And an alien woman is a narrow pit.

28She also lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the faithless among men.

29Who crieth: ‘Woe’? who: ‘Alas’? Who hath contentions? who hath raving? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?

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

31Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it giveth its colour in the cup, When it glideth down smoothly;

32At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like a basilisk.

33Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter confused things.

34Yea, thou 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 struck me, and I felt it not, They have beaten me, and I knew it not; When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.’