Proverbs
Chapter 23

1

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

2

¹ 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

² 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

³ "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?"

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Footnotes

¹ [2] Put a knife to your throat: a metaphor for self-restraint.

² [29-35] A vivid description of the evil effects, physical and psychological, of drunkenness.

³ [35] Wine makes the drunkard insensible to bodily and moral harm. His one desire is to indulge again.

New American Bible Copyright © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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