Home Master Index
←Prev   Proverbs 23 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


23:1  When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:
23:2  And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.
23:3  Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
23:4  Labor not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom.
23:5  Will you set your eyes on that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
23:6  Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye, neither desire you his dainty meats:
23:7  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, said he to you; but his heart is not with you.
23:8  The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up, and lose your sweet words.
23:9  Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
23:10  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
23:11  For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with you.
23:12  Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
23:13  Withhold not correction from the child: for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
23:14  You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell.
23:15  My son, if your heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
23:16  Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.
23:17  Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
23:18  For surely there is an end; and your expectation shall not be cut off.
23:19  Hear you, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
23:20  Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
23:22  Listen to your father that begat you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
23:23  Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
23:24  The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begets a wise child shall have joy of him.
23:25  Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bore you shall rejoice.
23:26  My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
23:27  For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
23:28  She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the transgressors among men.
23:29  Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes?
23:30  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
23:31  Look not you on the wine when it is red, when it gives his color in the cup, when it moves itself aright.
23:32  At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
23:33  Your eyes shall behold strange women, and your heart shall utter perverse things.
23:34  Yes, you shall be as he that lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he that lies on the top of a mast.
23:35  They have stricken me, shall you say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.