Proverbs 23

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 If you take your seat at a great man's table, take careful note of what you have before you;	1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, keep in mind who is before you;
2 if you have a big appetite put a knife to your throat.	2 And put a knife to your throat if you have a ravenous appetite.
3 Do not hanker for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.	3 Do not desire his delicacies; they are deceitful food.
4 Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth, stop applying your mind to this.	4 Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it;
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.	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 eat the food of anyone whose eye is jealous, do not hanker for his delicacies.	6 Do not take food with a grudging man, and do not desire his dainties;
7 For what he is real y thinking about is himself: 'Eat and drink,' he tells you, but his heart is not with you.	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 You wil spit out whatever you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.	8 The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.
9 Do not waste words on a fool, who wil not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.	9 Speak not for the fool's hearing; he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone, or encroach on orphans' lands,	10 Remove not the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of orphans;
11 for they have a powerful avenger, and he will take up their cause against you.	11 For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.
12 Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to instructive sayings.	12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.
13 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal.	13 Withhold not chastisement from a boy; if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Give him a stroke of the cane, you wil save his soul from Sheol.	14 Beat him with the rod, and you will save him from the nether world.
15 My child, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,	15 My son, if your heart be wise, my own heart also will rejoice;
16 and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.	16 And my inmost being will exult, when your lips speak what is right.
17 Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but remain steady every day in the fear of Yahweh;	17 Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD always;
18 for there is a future, and your hope wil not come to nothing.	18 For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.	19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way.
20 Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;	20 Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess;
21 for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves, and sleepiness is clothed in rags.	21 For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags.
22 Listen to your father from whom you are sprung, do not despise your mother in her old age.	22 Listen to your father who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
23 Purchase truth -- never sel it-wisdom, discipline, and discernment.	23 Get the truth, and sell it not-- wisdom, instruction and understanding.
24 The father of the upright wil rejoice indeed, he who fathers a wise child wil have joy of it.	24 The father of a just man will exult with glee; he who begets a wise son will have joy in him.
25 Your father and mother will be happy, and she who bore you joyful.	25 Let your father and mother have joy; let her who bore you exult.
26 My child, pay attention to me, let your eyes take pleasure in my way:	26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.
27 a prostitute is a deep pit, a narrow wel , the woman who belongs to another.	27 For the harlot is a deep ditch, and the adulteress a narrow pit;
28 Yes, like a brigand, she lies in wait, increasing the number of law-breakers.	28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the faithless among men.
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?	29 Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?
30 For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.	30 Those who linger long over wine, those who engage in trials of blended wine.
31 Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!	31 Look not on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the glass. It goes down smoothly;
32 In the end its bite is like a serpent's, its sting as sharp as an adder's.	32 but in the end it bites like a serpent, or like a poisonous adder.
33 Your eyes wil see peculiar things, you will talk nonsense from your heart.	33 Your eyes behold strange sights, and your heart utters disordered thoughts;
34 You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.	34 You are like one now lying in the depths of the sea, now sprawled at the top of the mast.
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!'	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?"