The Proverbs

23: 1When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,

 Consider diligently him that is before thee;

 ^23:2And put a knife to thy throat,

 If thou be a man given to appetite.

 ^23:3Be not desirous of his dainties;

 Seeing they are deceitful food.

 ^23:4Weary not thyself to be rich;

 Cease from thine own wisdom.

 ^23:5Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?

 For riches certainly make themselves wings,

 Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.

 ^23:6Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,

 Neither desire thou his dainties:

 ^23:7For as he thinketh within himself, so is he:

 Eat and drink, saith he to thee;

 But his heart is not with thee.

 ^23:8The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up,

 And lose thy sweet words.

 ^23:9Speak not in the hearing of a fool;

 For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

 ^23:10Remove not the ancient landmark;

 And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

 ^23:11For their Redeemer is strong;

 He will plead their cause against thee.

 ^23:12Apply thy heart unto instruction,

 And thine ears to the words of knowledge.

 ^23:13Withhold not correction from the child;

 For if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.

 ^23:14Thou shalt beat him with the rod,

 And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

 ^23:15My son, if thy heart be wise,

 My heart will be glad, even mine:

 ^23:16Yea, my heart will rejoice,

 When thy lips speak right things.

 ^23:17Let not thy heart envy sinners;

 But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:

 ^23:18For surely there is a reward;

 And thy hope shall not be cut off.

 ^23:19Hear thou, my son, and be wise,

 And guide thy heart in the way.

 ^23:20Be not among winebibbers,

 Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:

 ^23:21For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty;

 And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

 ^23:22Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,

 And despise not thy mother when she is old.

 ^23:23Buy the truth, and sell it not;

 Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

 ^23:24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;

 And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.

 ^23:25Let thy father and thy mother be glad,

 And let her that bare thee rejoice.

 ^23:26My son, give me thy heart;

 And let thine eyes delight in my ways.

 ^23:27For a harlot is a deep ditch;

 And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.

 ^23:28Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber,

 And increaseth the treacherous among men.

 ^23:29Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions?

 Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause?

 Who hath redness of eyes?

 ^23:30They that tarry long at the wine;

 They that go to seek out mixed wine.

 ^23:31Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,

 When it sparkleth in the cup,

 When it goeth down smoothly:

 ^23:32At the last it biteth like a serpent,

 And stingeth like an adder.

 ^23:33Thine eyes shall behold strange things,

 And thy heart shall utter perverse things.

 ^23:34Yea, 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.

 ^23:35They 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.