|
The Proverbs, Chapter 23
|
| 1 |
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what
is before thee:
|
| 2 |
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man
given to appetite.
|
| 3 |
Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
|
| 4 |
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
|
| 5 |
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches
certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward
heaven.
|
| 6 |
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither
desire thou his dainty meats:
|
| 7 |
For as he thinketh in his heart, so
is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with
thee.
|
| 8 |
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose
thy sweet words.
|
| 9 |
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom
of thy words.
|
| 10 |
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of
the fatherless:
|
| 11 |
For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead
their cause with thee.
|
| 12 |
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words
of knowledge.
|
| 13 |
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him
with the rod, he shall not die.
|
| 14 |
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul
from hell.
|
| 15 |
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even
mine.
|
| 16 |
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
|
| 17 |
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the
LORD all the day long.
|
| 18 |
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be
cut off.
|
| 19 |
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the
way.
|
| 20 |
Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
|
| 21 |
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness
shall clothe a man with rags.
|
| 22 |
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy
mother when she is old.
|
| 23 |
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction,
and understanding.
|
| 24 |
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that
begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
|
| 25 |
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee
shall rejoice.
|
| 26 |
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
|
| 27 |
For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow
pit.
|
| 28 |
She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the
transgressors among men.
|
| 29 |
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath
babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
|
| 30 |
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed
wine.
|
| 31 |
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his
colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
|
| 32 |
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an
adder.
|
| 33 |
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall
utter perverse things.
|
| 34 |
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the
sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
|
| 35 |
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they
have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it
yet again.
|