| Chapter 23 |
1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee:
|
2 | And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [be] a man given to appetite.
|
3 | Be not desirous of his dainties: for they [are] deceitful meat.
|
4 | Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
|
5 | Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for [riches] certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
|
6 | Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
|
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.
|
8 | The morsel [which] thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
|
9 | Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
|
10 | Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
|
11 | For their redeemer [is] mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
|
12 | Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
|
13 | Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
|
14 | Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
|
15 | My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
|
16 | Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
|
17 | Let not thine heart envy sinners: but [be thou] in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
|
18 | For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
|
19 | Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
|
20 | Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
|
21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe [a man] with rags.
|
22 | Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
|
23 | Buy the truth, and sell [it] not; [also] wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
|
24 | The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise [child] shall have joy of him.
|
25 | Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
|
26 | My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
|
27 | For a whore [is] a deep ditch; and a strange woman [is] a narrow pit.
|
28 | She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
|
29 | Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
|
30 | They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
|
31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, [when] it moveth itself aright.
|
32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
|
33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
|
34 | Yea, 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.
|
35 | They have stricken me, [shalt 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.
|