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23:1  When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Understand well what is before you,
23:2  So you should put a knife to your throat If you are a man of appetite.
23:3  Do not desire his delicacies, For it is bread of falsehood.
23:4  Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Because of your understanding, cease!
23:5  Do you make your eyes fly up to see it? But it is not there! Because it certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
23:6  Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, And do not desire his delicacies;
23:7  For as he calculates in his soul, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
23:8  You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, And you will corrupt your pleasant words.
23:9  Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the insight of your speech.
23:10  Do not move the ancient boundary And do not come into the fields of the orphans,
23:11  For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you.
23:12  Bring your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge.
23:13  Do not withhold discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
23:14  You shall strike him with the rod And deliver his soul from Sheol.
23:15  My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart also will be glad;
23:16  And my inmost being will exult When your lips speak upright things.
23:17  Do not let your heart be jealous of sinners, But be zealous in the fear of Yahweh always.
23:18  Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off.
23:19  You, my son, listen and be wise, And direct your heart in the way.
23:20  Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
23:21  For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe them with rags.
23:22  Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23:23  Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and discipline and understanding.
23:24  The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.
23:25  Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.
23:26  Give your heart to me, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.
23:27  For a harlot is a deep pit And a foreign woman is a narrow well.
23:28  Surely she lies in wait as a robber, And adds to the treacherous among men.
23:29  Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
23:30  Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to search out mixed wine.
23:31  Do not look on the wine when it glistens red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly;
23:32  At the end—like a serpent it bites, And like a viper it stings.
23:33  Your eyes will see strange things And your heart will speak perverse things.
23:34  And you will be like one who lies down in the heart of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.
23:35  “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek yet another.”