Proverbs 23

1. ¹When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;
2. ²and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3. ³Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.
4. ⁴Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:
5. ⁵wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.
6. ⁶Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.
7. ⁷For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8. ⁸Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.
9. ⁹Speak not in the ears of a foolish [supplied: man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10. ¹⁰Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11. ¹¹for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.
12. ¹²Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13. ¹³Withhold not correction from the child; for [supplied: if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:
14. ¹⁴thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.
15. ¹⁵My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;
16. ¹⁶and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.
17. ¹⁷Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [supplied: be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day;
18. ¹⁸for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
19. ¹⁹Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.
20. ²⁰Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.
21. ²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.
22. ²²Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23. ²³Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.
24. ²⁴The father of a righteous [supplied: man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [supplied: son] shall have joy of him:
25. ²⁵let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.
26. ²⁶My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27. ²⁷For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28. ²⁸She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.
29. ²⁹Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?
30. ³⁰-- They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.
31. ³¹Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:
32. ³²at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
33. ³³Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;
34. ³⁴and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:
35. ³⁵-- ''They have smitten me, [supplied: and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [supplied: and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''

Words in italics were supplied by the translators.

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