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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 are a man given to appetite.
23:3  Be not desirous of his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
23:4  Do not labor 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  Do not eat the bread of him who has an evil eye, neither 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 lose your sweet words.
23:9  Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
23:10  Do not remove the old landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
23:11  for their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause with you.
23:12  Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
23:13  Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
23:14  You shall beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from death.
23:15  My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice—even mine.
23:16  Yes, my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak right things.
23:17  Do not let your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all day long;
23:18  for surely there is an end, and your expectation will not be cut off.
23:19  Hear, my son, and be wise; and guide your heart in the way.
23:20  Do not be among winebibbers, among riotous 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 gave you life, 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 fathers a wise child will have joy of him.
23:25  Your father and your mother will be glad, and she who bore you will rejoice.
23:26  My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
23:27  For a prostitute is a deep ditch, and a seductress 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  Those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek 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 as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies upon the top of a mast.
23:35  “They have stricken me,” you will say, “and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I did not feel it. When will I awake? I will seek it yet again.”