Proverbs 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.⋮