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 [art] a man given to
appetite.
23:3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they [are] deceitful
food.
23:4 Labor not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.
23:5 Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not? for [riches]
certainly make to themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle
towards heaven.
23:6 Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] an evil eye,
neither desire thou his dainties:
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 will plead their cause
with thee.
23:12 Apply thy heart to instruction, and thy 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 thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice,
even mine.
23:16 Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right
things.
23:17 Let not thy 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 thy expectation shall not
be cut off.
23:19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the
way.
23:20 Be not among wine-bibbers; 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 to 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 bore
thee shall rejoice.
23:26 My son, give me thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my
ways.
23:27 For a lewd woman [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
its color 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 Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall
utter perverse things.
23:34 And 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, [wilt 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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