| Chapter 23 |
1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
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2 | And put a knife to thy throat, if thou art a man given to appetite.
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3 | Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful food.
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4 | Labor not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.
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5 | Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make to themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle towards 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 in his heart, 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 ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
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10 | Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
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11 | For their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause with thee.
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12 | Apply thy heart to instruction, and thy ears to the words of knowledge.
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13 | Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
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14 | Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
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15 | My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
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16 | Yes, my reins shall 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 the LORD all the day long.
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18 | For surely there is an end; and thy expectation 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 wine-bibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
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21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
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22 | Hearken to 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; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
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24 | The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
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25 | Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice.
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26 | My son, give me thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my ways.
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27 | For a lewd woman is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
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28 | She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
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29 | Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? 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 mixed wine.
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31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
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32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
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33 | Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
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34 | And 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, wilt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
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