Proverbs 23

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