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23:1  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;
23:2  and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
23:3  Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.
23:4  Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:
23:5  wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.
23:6  Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.
23:7  For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.
23:8  Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.
23:9  Speak not in the ears of a foolish man, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
23:10  Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
23:11  for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.
23:12  Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
23:13  Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:
23:14  thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.
23:15  My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;
23:16  and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.
23:17  Let not thy heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day;
23:18  for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
23:19  Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy 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 clotheth with rags.
23:22  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23:23  Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.
23:24  The father of a righteous man shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise son shall have joy of him:
23:25  let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.
23:26  My son, give me thy heart, and let thine 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 lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.
23:29  Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?
23:30  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.
23:31  Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:
23:32  at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
23:33  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;
23:34  and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:
23:35  'They have smitten me, and I am not sore; they have beaten me, and I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''