Proverbs 23
23
1When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
consider carefully what#23:1 Or who is before you,
2and put a knife to your throat
if you have a big#23:2 Lit you are the master of an appetite;
3don’t desire his choice food,#Gn 27:4; Pr 23:6; Dn 1:8
for that food is deceptive.
4Don’t wear yourself out to get rich;#Pr 15:27; 28:20; Mt 6:19; 1Tm 6:9–10; Heb 13:5
because you know better, stop!
5As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears,#Pr 27:24
for it makes wings for itself
and flies like an eagle to the sky.
6Don’t eat a stingy person’s bread,#23:6 Lit eat bread of an evil eye#Dt 15:9; Pr 28:22; Mt 6:23
and don’t desire his choice food,#Pr 23:3
7for it’s like someone calculating inwardly.#23:7 LXX reads it is like someone swallowing a hair in the throat#Mt 6:21; Lk 12:34
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.#Pr 26:24–25
8You will vomit the little you’ve eaten
and waste your pleasant words.
9Don’t speak to#23:9 Lit in the ears of a fool,
for he will despise the insight of your words.#Mt 7:6
10Don’t move an ancient boundary marker,#Pr 22:28
and don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
11for their Redeemer is strong,#Jr 50:34
and he will champion their cause against you.#Pr 22:22–23
12Apply yourself to discipline
and listen to words of knowledge.
13Don’t withhold discipline from a youth;
if you punish him with a rod, he will not die.#Pr 13:24; 19:18; 22:15
14Punish him with a rod,
and you will rescue his life from Sheol.#1Co 5:5
15My son, if your heart is wise,
my heart will indeed rejoice.#Pr 10:1; 15:20; 23:24–25; 29:3
16My innermost being will celebrate
when your lips say what is right.#Pr 8:6
17Don’t let your heart envy sinners;#Ps 37:1; Pr 24:1,19
instead, always fear the Lord.#Pr 28:14
18For then you will have a future,
and your hope will not be dashed.#Ps 9:18; Pr 10:28; 24:14; Jr 29:11
19Listen, my son, and be wise;
keep your mind on the right course.
20Don’t associate with those who drink too much wine#Pr 20:1; 23:29–30; Is 5:22; Mt 24:49; Lk 21:34; Rm 13:13; Eph 5:18
or with those who gorge themselves on meat.#Pr 28:7
21For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor,
and grogginess will clothe them in rags.#Pr 6:10–11
22Listen to your father who gave you life,
and don’t despise your mother when#23:22 Or because she is old.#Pr 1:8; 15:20; Eph 6:1
23Buy — and do not sell — truth,
wisdom, instruction, and understanding.#Pr 4:5,7; 16:16; 18:15; Mt 13:44
24The father of a righteous son will rejoice greatly,
and one who fathers a wise son will delight in him.#Pr 10:1; 23:15; 29:3
25Let your father and mother have joy,#Pr 27:11
and let her who gave birth to you rejoice.
26My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
27For a prostitute is a deep pit,#Pr 22:14
and a wayward woman is a narrow well;
28indeed, she sets an ambush like a robber#Pr 6:26; 7:12,22–23; Ec 7:26
and increases the number of unfaithful people.
29Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has conflicts? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds for no reason?#Pr 23:35
Who has red eyes?
30Those who linger over wine;
those who go looking for mixed wine.#Is 5:11,22
31Don’t gaze at wine because it is red,#Eph 5:18
because it gleams in the cup
and goes down smoothly.#Sg 7:9
32In the end it bites like a snake
and stings like a viper.
33Your eyes will see strange things,
and you will say absurd things.#23:33 Or will speak perversities, or inverted things#Is 28:7
34You’ll be like someone sleeping out at sea
or lying down on the top of a ship’s mast.
35“They struck me, but#23:35 LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg read me,” you will say, “but I feel no pain!
They beat me, but I didn’t know it!#Pr 23:29; Jr 5:3
When will I wake up?
I’ll look for another drink.”#Is 56:12
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Proverbs 23: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Proverbs 23
23
1When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,
Consider diligently him that is before thee;
2And put a knife to thy throat,
If thou be a man given to appetite.
3Be not desirous of his dainties;
Seeing they are deceitful food.
4Weary not thyself to be rich;
Cease from thine own wisdom.
5Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings,
Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.
6Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,
Neither desire thou his dainties:
7For as he thinketh within himself, so is he:
Eat and drink, saith he to thee;
But his heart is not with thee.
8The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up,
And lose thy sweet words.
9Speak not in the hearing of a fool;
For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10Remove not the ancient landmark;
And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11For their Redeemer is strong;
He will plead their cause against thee.
12Apply thy heart unto instruction,
And thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13Withhold not correction from the child;
For if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14Thou shalt beat him with the rod,
And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.
15My son, if thy heart be wise,
My heart will be glad, even mine:
16Yea, my heart will rejoice,
When thy lips speak right things.
17Let not thy heart envy sinners;
But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:
18For surely there is a reward;
And thy hope shall not be cut off.
19Hear thou, my son, and be wise,
And guide thy heart in the way.
20Be not among winebibbers,
Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:
21For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty;
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
22Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,
And despise not thy mother when she is old.
23Buy the truth, and sell it not;
Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.
25Let thy father and thy mother be glad,
And let her that bare thee rejoice.
26My son, give me thy heart;
And let thine eyes delight in my ways.
27For a harlot is a deep ditch;
And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.
28Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber,
And increaseth the treacherous among men.
29Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions?
Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause?
Who hath redness of eyes?
30They that tarry long at the wine;
They that go to seek out mixed wine.
31Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
When it sparkleth in the cup,
When it goeth down smoothly:
32At the last it biteth like a serpent,
And stingeth like an adder.
33Thine eyes shall behold strange things,
And thy heart shall utter perverse things.
34Yea, 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.
35They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, and I felt it not:
When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
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