Chapter 23
- 23:1
- When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what 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 meat.
- 23:4
- Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
- 23:5
- Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
- 23:6
- Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
- 23:7
- For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
- 23:8
- The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
- 23:9
- Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
- 23:10
- Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
- 23:11
- For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
- 23:12
- Apply thine 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 hell.
- 23:15
- My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
- 23:16
- Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
- 23:17
- Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
- 23:18
- For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
- 23:19
- Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine 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 shall clothe a man 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; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
- 23:24
- The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
- 23:25
- Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
- 23:26
- My son, give me thine 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 for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
- 23:29
- Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
- 23:30
- They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
- 23:31
- Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
- 23:32
- At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
- 23:33
- Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
- 23:34
- 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.
- 23:35
- 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.
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