Chapter 23

¹When you sit to dine with a ruler, consider well what is before you;

²put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.

³Do not crave his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

⁴Do not labor to be rich; cease from your own wisdom.

⁵Will you set your eyes on that which vanishes? For riches surely make wings and fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

⁶Do not eat the bread of one who is stingy, nor desire his delicacies;

⁷for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink,” he says, but his heart is not with you.

⁸The morsel you have eaten you will vomit, and you will waste your kind words.

⁹Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone, nor encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

¹⁴You shall strike him with the rod and deliver his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My child, if your heart is wise, my heart too will rejoice.

¹⁶My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Let not your heart envy sinners, but remain in the fear of the Lord all the day.

¹⁸For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my child, and be wise; direct your heart in the way.

²⁰Do not be among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat,

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who begets a wise child will delight in him.

²⁵Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and a forbidden woman is a narrow well.

²⁸She lies in wait like a robber and increases the faithless among people.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

³⁰Those who linger over wine, who go to seek mixed drinks.

³¹Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

³²In the end, it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.

³⁴You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of a mast.

³⁵“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When will I awake? I will seek another drink.” Proverbs 24 The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 24 – VKJV