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23:1  When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you;
23:2  And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite.
23:3  Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food.
23:4  Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!
23:5  Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
23:6  Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;
23:7  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
23:8  The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste your pleasant words.
23:9  Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
23:10  Do not remove the ancient landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
23:11  For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.
23:12  Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge.
23:13  Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
23:14  You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell.
23:15  My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;
23:16  Yes, my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things.
23:17  Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day;
23:18  For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off.
23:19  Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way.
23:20  Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
23:22  Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23:23  Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
23:24  The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.
23:25  Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who bore you rejoice.
23:26  My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways.
23:27  For a harlot is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well.
23:28  She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men.
23:29  Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
23:30  Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.
23:31  Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly;
23:32  At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.
23:33  Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.
23:34  Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
23:35  “They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”