Proverbs 23

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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 eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,
2 if you have a big appetite put a knife to your throat.	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 hanker for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.	3 Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.
4 Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth, stop applying your mind to this.	4 Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
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 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 eat the food of anyone whose eye is jealous, do not hanker for his delicacies.	6 Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
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, 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 You wil spit out whatever you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.	8 The foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.
9 Do not waste words on a fool, who wil not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.	9 Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.
10 Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone, or encroach on orphans' lands,	10 Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.
11 for they have a powerful avenger, and he will take up their cause against you.	11 For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.
12 Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to instructive sayings.	12 Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.
13 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal.	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 Give him a stroke of the cane, you wil save his soul from Sheol.	14 You will strike him with the rod, and so shall you deliver his soul from Hell.
15 My child, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,	15 My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.
16 and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.	16 And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.
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 compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.
18 for there is a future, and your hope wil not come to nothing.	18 For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.
19 Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.	19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.
20 Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;	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 glutton impoverish themselves, and sleepiness is clothed 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 from whom you are sprung, do not despise your mother in her old age.	22 Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.
23 Purchase truth -- never sel it-wisdom, discipline, and discernment.	23 Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or 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 the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.
25 Your father and mother will be happy, and she who bore you joyful.	25 Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
26 My child, pay attention to me, let your eyes take pleasure in my way:	26 My son, offer 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 a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.
28 Yes, like a brigand, she lies in wait, increasing the number of law-breakers.	28 She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.
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 has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?
30 For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.	30 Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?
31 Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!	31 Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,
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 will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.
33 Your eyes wil see peculiar things, you will talk nonsense from your heart.	33 Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.
34 You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.	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 '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 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?”