Proverbs 23

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, keep in mind who is before you;	1 When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,
2 And put a knife to your throat if you have a ravenous appetite.	2 and put a knife to your throat, if, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power.
3 Do not desire his delicacies; they are deceitful food.	3 Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.
4 Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it;	4 Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
5 While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.	5 Do not raise your eyes toward wealth that you are not able to have. For they will make themselves wings, like those of an eagle, and they will fly in the sky.
6 Do not take food with a grudging man, and do not desire his dainties;	6 Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
7 For in his greed he is like a storm. "Eat and drink," he says to you, though his heart is not with you;	7 For, like a seer and an interpreter of dreams, he presumes what he does not know. “Eat and drink,” he will say to you; and his mind is not with you.
8 The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.	8 The foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.
9 Speak not for the fool's hearing; he will despise the wisdom of your words.	9 Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.
10 Remove not the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of orphans;	10 Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.
11 For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.	11 For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.	12 Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not chastisement from a boy; if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.	13 Do not be willing to take away discipline from a child. For if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Beat him with the rod, and you will save him from the nether world.	14 You will strike him with the rod, and so shall you deliver his soul from Hell.
15 My son, if your heart be wise, my own heart also will rejoice;	15 My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.
16 And my inmost being will exult, when your lips speak what is right.	16 And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.
17 Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD always;	17 Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.
18 For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.	18 For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way.	19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.
20 Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess;	20 Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh.
21 For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags.	21 For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.
22 Listen to your father who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.	22 Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.
23 Get the truth, and sell it not-- wisdom, instruction and understanding.	23 Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.
24 The father of a just man will exult with glee; he who begets a wise son will have joy in him.	24 The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.
25 Let your father and mother have joy; let her who bore you exult.	25 Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.	26 My son, offer 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;	27 For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.
28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the faithless among men.	28 She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.
29 Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?	29 Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?
30 Those who linger long over wine, those who engage in trials of blended wine.	30 Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?
31 Look not on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the glass. It goes down smoothly;	31 Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,
32 but in the end it bites like a serpent, or like a poisonous adder.	32 but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.
33 Your eyes behold strange sights, and your heart utters disordered thoughts;	33 Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.
34 You are like one now lying in the depths of the sea, now sprawled at the top of the mast.	34 And you will be like someone sleeping in the middle of the sea, and like a pilot, fast asleep, who has lost his hold on the helm.
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?"	35 And you will say: “They have beaten me, but I did not feel pain. They have dragged me, and I did not realize it. When will I awaken and find more wine?”