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23:1  When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you,
23:2  And put a knife to your throat If you are a person of great appetite.
23:3  Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food.
23:4  Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; Stop dwelling on it.
23:5  When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
23:6  Do not eat the bread of a selfish person; Or desire his delicacies;
23:7  For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.
23:8  You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten And waste your compliments.
23:9  Do not speak to be heard by a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
23:10  Do not move the ancient boundary Or go into the fields of the fatherless,
23:11  For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you.
23:12  Apply your heart to discipline, And your ears to words of knowledge.
23:13  Do not withhold discipline from a child; Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
23:14  You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol.
23:15  My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart also will be glad,
23:16  And my innermost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right.
23:17  Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always.
23:18  Certainly there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off.
23:19  Listen, my son, 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 one with rags.
23:22  Listen to your father, who fathered you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23:23  Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
23:24  The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who fathers 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 me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.
23:27  For a prostitute is a deep pit, And a strange woman is a narrow well.
23:28  Certainly she lurks as a robber, And increases the treacherous among mankind.
23:29  Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has red eyes?
23:30  Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine.
23:31  Do not look at wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly;
23:32  In the end it bites like a snake And stings like a viper.
23:33  Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will say perverse things.
23:34  And you will be like one who lies down in the middle 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 will I awake? I will seek another drink.”