| Prov. 23:1 |
When you sit to eat with a ruler, / Consider carefully who is before you; |
| Prov. 23:2 |
And put a knife to your throat / If you are a man of [great] appetite. |
| Prov. 23:3 |
Do not desire his delicacies, / For they are deceitful food. |
| Prov. 23:4 |
Do not weary yourself to become rich; / Cease from your consideration [of it.] |
| Prov. 23:5 |
When you set your eyes upon it, it is gone; / For [wealth] certainly makes itself wings, / Like an eagle that flies toward heaven. |
| Prov. 23:6 |
Do not eat the bread of one who is envious, / And do not desire his delicacies; |
| Prov. 23:7 |
For as he thinks within himself, so he is. / He says to you, Eat and drink; / But his heart is not with you. |
| Prov. 23:8 |
You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten, / And waste your pleasant words. |
| Prov. 23:9 |
Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, / For he will despise the wisdom of your words. |
| Prov. 23:10 |
Do not remove the ancient boundary marker, / Or go into the fields of the fatherless; |
| Prov. 23:11 |
For their Redeemer is strong; / He will plead their cause against you. |
| Prov. 23:12 |
Apply your heart to instruction, / And your ears to words of knowledge. |
| Prov. 23:13 |
Do not withhold correction from a child; / If you beat him with the rod, he will not die. |
| Prov. 23:14 |
[If ] you beat him with the rod, / You will deliver his soul from Sheol. |
| Prov. 23:15 |
My son, if your heart is wise, / My own heart will also rejoice; |
| Prov. 23:16 |
My inward parts will also exult, / When your lips speak right things. |
| Prov. 23:17 |
Do not let your heart envy sinners, / But [live] in the fear of Jehovah all day long; |
| Prov. 23:18 |
For surely there is a latter end, / And your hope will not be cut off. |
| Prov. 23:19 |
Listen, my son, and be wise, / And direct your heart in the way. |
| Prov. 23:20 |
Do not be among those who get drunk with wine, / Among gluttonous eaters of flesh; |
| Prov. 23:21 |
For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, / And drowsiness will clothe [them] with rags. |
| Prov. 23:22 |
Listen to your father who begot you, / And do not despise your mother when she is old. |
| Prov. 23:23 |
Buy truth, and do not sell [it;] / [Buy] wisdom and instruction and understanding. |
| Prov. 23:24 |
The father of the righteous man will greatly exult, / And he who begets a wise [child] will rejoice in him. |
| Prov. 23:25 |
Let your father and your mother rejoice, / And let her who bore you exult. |
| Prov. 23:26 |
My son, give me your heart, / And let your eyes observe my ways. |
| Prov. 23:27 |
For a harlot is a deep pit, / And an adulteress is a narrow well. |
| Prov. 23:28 |
Indeed, she lies in wait as a robber, / And increases [the number of ] the treacherous among men. |
| Prov. 23:29 |
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? / Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness / of eyes? |
| Prov. 23:30 |
Those who linger late over wine, / Those who go to seek out mixed wines. |
| Prov. 23:31 |
Do not look upon the wine when it is red, / When it sparkles in the cup, / When it goes down smoothly; |
| Prov. 23:32 |
In the end it bites like a serpent, / And stings like an adder. |
| Prov. 23:33 |
Your eyes will see strange things, / And your heart will utter perverse things; |
| Prov. 23:34 |
And you will be like one who lies down while at sea, / Or like one who lies down at the top of a mast. |
| Prov. 23:35 |
They struck me, [you will say, but] I was not hurt; / They beat me, [but] I did not feel [it;] / When will I awake? I will seek another drink. |