Proverbs 23:1-35
23 When you sit down to eat with a king,Carefully consider what is before you;
2 Put a knife to your throat*If you have a large appetite.*
3 Do not crave his delicacies,For it is deceptive food.
4 Do not wear yourself out to gain wealth.+
Stop and show understanding.*
5 When you cast your eyes on it, it is not there,+For it will surely sprout wings like an eagle and fly off into the sky.+
6 Do not eat the food of a stingy person;*Do not crave his delicacies,
7 For he is like one keeping accounts.*
“Eat and drink,” he says to you, but he does not mean it.*
8 You will vomit up the morsels you have eatenAnd will have wasted your compliments.
9 Do not speak in the ears of the stupid one,+For he will despise the wisdom of your words.+
10 Do not move an ancient boundary marker+Or encroach on the field of the fatherless.
11 For their Defender* is strong;He will take up their cause against you.+
12 Apply your heart to disciplineAnd your ear to the sayings of knowledge.
13 Do not hold back discipline from a boy.*+
If you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
14 With the rod you should strike him,In order to save him* from the Grave.*
15 My son, if your heart becomes wise,Then my own heart will rejoice.+
16 My innermost being* will find joyWhen your lips speak what is right.
17 Let your heart not envy sinners,+But be in the fear of Jehovah all day long,+
18 For then you will have a future+And your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and become wise,And direct your heart in the right way.
20 Do not be among those who drink too much wine,+Among those who gorge themselves on meat,+
21 For a drunkard and a glutton will come to poverty,+And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.
22 Listen to your father who caused your birth,And do not despise your mother just because she has grown old.+
23 Buy* truth and never sell it,+Also wisdom and discipline and understanding.+
24 The father of a righteous one will surely be joyful;Whoever fathers a wise son will rejoice in him.
25 Your father and your mother will rejoice,And she who gave birth to you will be joyful.
26 My son, do give your heart to me,And may your eyes take pleasure in my ways.+
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit,And an immoral* woman is a narrow well.+
28 She lies in wait like a robber;+She increases the number of unfaithful men.
29 Who has woe? Who has uneasiness?
Who has quarrels? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds for no reason? Who has bleary* eyes?
30 Those lingering long over wine;+Those searching out* mixed wine.
31 Do not look at the wine’s red colorAs it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly,
32 For in the end it bites like a serpent,And it secretes poison like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,And your heart will speak perverse things.+
34 And you will be like one lying down in the middle of the sea,Like one lying at the top of a ship’s mast.
35 You will say: “They have struck me, but I did not feel it.*
They beat me, but I did not know it.
When will I wake up?+
I need another drink.”*
Footnotes
^ Or “Restrain yourself.”
^ Or “a soul full of desire.”
^ Or possibly, “Cease from your own understanding.”
^ Or “of anyone whose eye is evil.”
^ Or “calculating in his soul.”
^ Lit., “his heart is not with you.”
^ Lit., “Redeemer.”
^ Or “child; youth.”
^ Or “his soul.”
^ Lit., “My kidneys.”
^ Or “Acquire.”
^ Or “dullness of.”
^ Or “who gather to try out.”
^ Or “I felt no pain.”
^ Or “I will seek it again.”