Proverbs 23  Lexham English Bible

23 When you sit to eat with a ruler,
    you shall surely observe what is before you,
² and you shall put a knife to your throat
    if you have a big appetite.^[a]
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
    for^[b] it is food of deception.
⁴ Do not tire in order to become rich;
    out of your understanding, may you desist.
⁵ Your eyes will alight^[c] on it, but there is nothing to it,
    for suddenly it will make for itself wings
    like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.
⁶ Do not eat the bread of the stingy,^[d]
    and do not desire his delicacies.
⁷ For, like hair in his throat,^[e] so it is.^[f]
    “Eat and drink!” he will say to you,
    but his heart will not be with you.
⁸ Your morsel you have eaten, you will vomit it up,
    and you will waste your pleasant words.
⁹ In the ears of a fool do not speak,
    for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
¹⁰ Do not remove an ancient boundary marker,
    and on the fields of orphans do not encroach;
¹¹ For their redeemer is strong,
    he himself will plead their cause against you.
¹² Apply your heart^[g] to instruction,
    and your ear to sayings of knowledge.
¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child,
    if you will beat him with the rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ As for you, with the rod you shall beat him,
    and his life^[h] you will save from Sheol.^[i]
15 My child, if your heart^[j] is wise,
    my heart will be glad—even me!
¹⁶ And my insides^[k] will rejoice
    when your lips speak what is upright.
¹⁷ May your heart^[l] not envy the sinners,
    but live in fear of Yahweh all day.^[m]
18 Surely^[n] there is a future,
    and your hope will not be cut off.
¹⁹ You, my child, hear and be wise,
    and direct your heart^[o] on the road.
²⁰ Do not be among drinkers of wine,
    among gluttonous eaters of their meat.^[p]
21 For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor,
    and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.
²² Listen to your father—he who gave you life,^[q]
    and do not despise your mother when^[r] she is old.
²³ Buy truth and do not sell it,
    wisdom and instruction and understanding.
²⁴ The father of the righteous will surely rejoice;
    he who bears a wise person will be happy with him.
²⁵ May your father and your mother be glad,
    and may she who bore you rejoice.
²⁶ My child, may you give your heart^[s] to me,
    and may your eyes delight in my ways.
²⁷ For a deep pit is a prostitute,^[t]
    and a narrow well is an adulteress.^[u]
28 She is also like a robber lying in wait,
    and the faithless among mankind she increases.
²⁹ To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint?
    To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?
³⁰ To those who linger over wine,
    to those who come to try mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles^[v] on the cup,
    going down smoothly.
³² In the end,^[w] it will bite like a serpent,
    and it will sting like an adder.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your heart^[x] will speak perverse things.
³⁴ And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea,
    and like him who lies down on top of a mast.
³⁵ “They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it.
    When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”