| Chapter 23 |
1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that is before thee;
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2 | And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite.
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3 | Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food.
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4 | Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.
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5 | Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For [riches] certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.
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6 | Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties:
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7 | For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.
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8 | The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.
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9 | Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
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10 | Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
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11 | For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee.
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12 | Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge.
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13 | Withhold not correction from the child; [For] if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
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14 | Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.
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15 | My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine:
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16 | Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.
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17 | Let not thy heart envy sinners; But [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:
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18 | For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off.
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19 | Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way.
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20 | Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:
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21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe [a man] with rags.
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22 | Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old.
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23 | Buy the truth, and sell it not; [Yea], wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
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24 | The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.
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25 | Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice.
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26 | My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways.
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27 | For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.
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28 | Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men.
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29 | Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
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30 | They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine.
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31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly:
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32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.
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33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things.
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34 | Yea, 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.
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35 | They have stricken me, [shalt thou say], and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
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