Proverbs 23

Warnings About Excess and Envy

¹When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

²put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.

³Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food.

⁴Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

⁵Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

⁶Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies,

⁷for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

⁹Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.

¹⁶Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear the LORD all day long.

¹⁸Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

Parental Instruction and Warnings Against Vice

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!

²⁰Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat;

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!

²⁶My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

³²In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

³⁴Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

³⁵“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”