Proverbs 23

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	NEW JERUSALEM
1 When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,	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 your throat, if, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power.	2 if you have a big appetite put a knife to your throat.
3 Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.	3 Do not hanker for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
4 Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.	4 Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth, stop applying your mind to this.
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.	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 Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.	6 Do not eat the food of anyone whose eye is jealous, do not hanker for his delicacies.
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.	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 foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.	8 You wil spit out whatever you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.
9 Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.	9 Do not waste words on a fool, who wil not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.
10 Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.	10 Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone, or encroach on orphans' lands,
11 For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.	11 for they have a powerful avenger, and he will take up their cause against you.
12 Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.	12 Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to instructive sayings.
13 Do not be willing to take away discipline from a child. For if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.	13 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal.
14 You will strike him with the rod, and so shall you deliver his soul from Hell.	14 Give him a stroke of the cane, you wil save his soul from Sheol.
15 My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.	15 My child, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,
16 And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.	16 and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.
17 Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.	17 Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but remain steady every day in the fear of Yahweh;
18 For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.	18 for there is a future, and your hope wil not come to nothing.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.	19 Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
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.	20 Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;
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.	21 for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves, and sleepiness is clothed in rags.
22 Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your 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 Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.	23 Purchase truth -- never sel it-wisdom, discipline, and discernment.
24 The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.	24 The father of the upright wil rejoice indeed, he who fathers a wise child wil have joy of it.
25 Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.	25 Your father and mother will be happy, and she who bore you joyful.
26 My son, offer me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.	26 My child, pay attention to me, let your eyes take pleasure in my way:
27 For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.	27 a prostitute is a deep pit, a narrow wel , the woman who belongs to another.
28 She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.	28 Yes, like a brigand, she lies in wait, increasing the number of law-breakers.
29 Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery 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 Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?	30 For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.
31 Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,	31 Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!
32 but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.	32 In the end its bite is like a serpent's, its sting as sharp as an adder's.
33 Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.	33 Your eyes wil see peculiar things, you will talk nonsense from your heart.
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.	34 You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.
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?”	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!'