Proverbs 23

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:	1 If you take your seat at a great man's table, take careful note of what you have before you;
2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.	2 if you have a big appetite put a knife to your throat.
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.	3 Do not hanker for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
4 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.	4 Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth, stop applying your mind to this.
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.	5 Fix your gaze on it, and it is there no longer, for it is able to sprout wings like an eagle that flies off tothe sky.
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:	6 Do not eat the food of anyone whose eye is jealous, do not hanker for his delicacies.
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.	7 For what he is real y thinking about is himself: 'Eat and drink,' he tells you, but his heart is not with you.
8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.	8 You wil spit out whatever you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.	9 Do not waste words on a fool, who wil not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.
10 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:	10 Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone, or encroach on orphans' lands,
11 For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.	11 for they have a powerful avenger, and he will take up their cause against you.
12 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.	12 Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to instructive sayings.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.	13 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.	14 Give him a stroke of the cane, you wil save his soul from Sheol.
15 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.	15 My child, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,
16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.	16 and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.
17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.	17 Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but remain steady every day in the fear of Yahweh;
18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.	18 for there is a future, and your hope wil not come to nothing.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.	19 Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:	20 Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.	21 for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves, and sleepiness is clothed in rags.
22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.	22 Listen to your father from whom you are sprung, do not despise your mother in her old age.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.	23 Purchase truth -- never sel it-wisdom, discipline, and discernment.
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.	24 The father of the upright wil rejoice indeed, he who fathers a wise child wil have joy of it.
25 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.	25 Your father and mother will be happy, and she who bore you joyful.
26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.	26 My child, pay attention to me, let your eyes take pleasure in my way:
27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.	27 a prostitute is a deep pit, a narrow wel , the woman who belongs to another.
28 She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.	28 Yes, like a brigand, she lies in wait, increasing the number of law-breakers.
29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?	29 For whom is pity, for whom contempt, for whom is strife, for whom complaint, for whom blows struckat random, for whom the clouded eye?
30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.	30 For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.	31 Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.	32 In the end its bite is like a serpent's, its sting as sharp as an adder's.
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.	33 Your eyes wil see peculiar things, you will talk nonsense from your heart.
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.	34 You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.
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.	35 'Struck me, have they? But I'm not hurt. Beaten me? I don't feel anything. When shal I wake up? . . I'lask for more of it!'