【Proverbs】Chapter 23 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

23:1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, keep in mind who is before you;

23:2 And put a knife to your throat if you have a ravenous appetite.

23:3 Do not desire his delicacies; they are deceitful food.

23:4 Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it;

23:5 While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.

23:6 Do not take food with a grudging man, and do not desire his dainties;

23:7 For in his greed he is like a storm. "Eat and drink," he says to you, though his heart is not with you;

23:8 The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.

23:9 Speak not for the fool’s hearing; he will despise the wisdom of your words.

23:10 Remove not the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of orphans;

23:11 For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.

23:12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.

23:13 Withhold not chastisement from a boy; if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.

23:14 Beat him with the rod, and you will save him from the nether world.

23:15 My son, if your heart be wise, my own heart also will rejoice;

23:16 And my inmost being will exult, when your lips speak what is right.

23:17 Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD always;

23:18 For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

23:19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way.

23:20 Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess;

23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags.

23:22 Listen to your father who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

23:23 Get the truth, and sell it not ? wisdom, instruction and understanding.

23:24 The father of a just man will exult with glee; he who begets a wise son will have joy in him.

23:25 Let your father and mother have joy; let her who bore you exult.

23:26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.

23:27 For the harlot is a deep ditch, and the adulteress a narrow pit;

23:28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the faithless among men.

23:29 Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?

23:30 Those who linger long over wine, those who engage in trials of blended wine.

23:31 Look not on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the glass. It goes down smoothly;

23:32 but in the end it bites like a serpent, or like a poisonous adder.

23:33 Your eyes behold strange sights, and your heart utters disordered thoughts;

23:34 You are like one now lying in the depths of the sea, now sprawled at the top of the mast.

23:35 "They struck me, but it pained me not; They beat me, but I felt it not; When shall I awake to seek wine once again?"

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