Proverbs 23
1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, pay close attention to what is in front of you.
2 Put a knife to your throat if you are a man of great appetite.
3 Do not crave his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; give up your own cleverness.
5 The moment you set your eyes on wealth, it is gone; for it makes wings for itself and flies through the sky like an eagle.
6 Do not eat the food of a stingy person or crave his delicacies.
7 For he is like someone calculating inwardly: “Eat and drink,” he tells you, but his heart is not with you.
8 You will vomit up the morsel you ate and waste your pleasant words.
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense in your words.
10 Do not move the ancient boundary marker or enter the field of orphans.
11 For their Redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.
12 Give your heart to discipline, and your ears to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a young person; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
14 Strike him with a rod, and you will save his life from Sheol.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will rejoice.
16 My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is upright.
17 Do not let your heart envy sinners; instead, remain in the fear of the LORD all day long.
18 For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise; guide your heart along the right path.
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or those who gorge themselves on meat.
21 For drunkards and gluttons will become poor, and sleep will clothe them in rags.
22 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she grows old.
23 Buy truth and do not sell it: wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
24 The father of a righteous person rejoices greatly; the one who fathers a wise child will be glad in that child.
25 May your father and mother be glad; may she who gave birth to you rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep watch over my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a narrow well.
28 She lies in wait like a robber and increases the number of traitors among people.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has quarrels? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who linger over wine, those who go to sample mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it turns red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
32 In the end, it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will speak perverse things.
34 You will be like someone lying in the middle of the sea, like someone lying at the top of a mast.
35 “They struck me, but I felt no pain; they beat me, but I felt nothing. When will I wake up? I will seek more once again.”
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