Proverbs 23
Revised Geneva Translation
23 When you sit to eat with a ruler, diligently consider what is before you;
2 and put your knife to your throat if you are a man given to overeating.
3 Do not be desirous of his delicacies. For it is deceptive food.
4 Do not overwork to be rich. Cease from your own understanding.
5 Will you set your eyes on that which is nothing? For riches takes to her wings, as an eagle, and flies into the sky.
6 Do not eat the bread of him who has an evil eye; nor desire his delicacies.
7 For as he thinks in his heart, so he is. He will say to you, “Eat and drink.” But his heart is not with you.
8 You shall vomit your morsel that you have eaten, and you shall lose your sweet words.
9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool. For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not remove the ancient boundaries. And do not enter into the fields of the fatherless.
11 For He who redeems them is mighty. He will defend their cause against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction; and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold correction from the child. If you strike him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 You shall strike him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from Hell.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, my heart shall rejoice (and I also).
16 Indeed, my core shall rejoice when your lips speak righteous things.
17 Do not let your heart be envious against sinners. But let it be in the fear of the LORD, continually.
18 For surely there is an end. And your hope shall not be cut off.
19 O my son, hear, and be wise. And guide your heart in the way.
20 Do not keep company with drunkards, nor with gluttons.
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall be poor. And the sleeper shall be clothed with rags.
22 Obey your father who has begotten you. And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, but do not sell it (likewise wisdom, instruction, and understanding).
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice. And he who begets a wise child shall have joy from him.
25 Your father and your mother shall be glad. And she who bore you shall rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.
27 For a whore is as a deep ditch. And a strange woman is as a narrow pit.
28 Also, she lies in wait, as if for a prey. And she increases the transgressors among men.
29 To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom is strife? To whom is murmuring? To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is the redness of the eyes?
30 It is to those who linger long at the wine; to those who go and seek mixed wine.
31 Do not look at the wine when it is red; when it shows its color in the cup or goes down pleasantly.
32 In the end, it will bite like a serpent; and hurt like a viper.
33 Your eyes shall look upon strange women. And your heart shall speak lewd things.
34 And you shall be as one who sleeps in the midst of the sea; or who sleeps on the top of the mast, saying,
35 “They have stricken me, but I was not sick. They have beaten me, but I did not know it.” Therefore, when I awake, I will still seek it.
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