Proverbs 23

¹ When you sit down to dine with a ruler, keep in mind who is before you;

² And put a knife to your throat if you have a ravenous appetite.

³ Do not desire his delicacies; they are deceitful food.

⁴ Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it;

⁵ While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.

⁶ Do not take food with a grudging man, and do not desire his dainties;

⁷ For in his greed he is like a storm. "Eat and drink," he says to you, though his heart is not with you;

⁸ The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.

⁹ Speak not for the fool's hearing; he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Remove not the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of orphans;

¹¹ For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.

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

¹³ Withhold not chastisement from a boy; if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴ Beat him with the rod, and you will save him from the nether world.

¹⁵ My son, if your heart be wise, my own heart also will rejoice;

¹⁶ And my inmost being will exult, when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷ Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD always;

¹⁸ For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way.

²⁰ Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess;

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags.

²² Listen to your father who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

²³ Get the truth, and sell it not-- wisdom, instruction and understanding.

²⁴ The father of a just man will exult with glee; he who begets a wise son will have joy in him.

²⁵ Let your father and mother have joy; let her who bore you exult.

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

²⁷ For the harlot is a deep ditch, and the adulteress a narrow pit;

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

²⁹ Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?

³⁰ Those who linger long over wine, those who engage in trials of blended wine.

³¹ Look not on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the glass. It goes down smoothly;

³² but in the end it bites like a serpent, or like a poisonous adder.

³³ Your eyes behold strange sights, and your heart utters disordered thoughts;

³⁴ You are like one now lying in the depths of the sea, now sprawled at the top of the mast.

³⁵ "They struck me, but it pained me not; They beat me, but I felt it not; When shall I awake to seek wine once again?"