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Proverbs - Chapter 23 - A Conservative Version

  1. When thou sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently him who 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, since they are deceitful food.
  4. Weary not thyself to be rich. Out of thine own wisdom, cease.
  5. Will thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For it certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward heaven.
  6. Eat thou not the bread of an evil eye, nor desire thou his dainties.
  7. For as he thinks within himself, so [is] he. Eat and drink, he says to thee, but his heart is not with thee.
  8. The morsel which thou have eaten thou shall vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
  9. Speak not in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
  10. Remove not the ancient landmark. And enter not into the fields of the fatherless,
  11. for their Redeemer is strong. He will plead their cause against thee.
  12. Apply thy heart to instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
  13. Withhold not correction from the child, [for] if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
  14. Thou shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from Sheol.
  15. My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart will be glad, even mine.
  16. Yea, my heart will rejoice when thy lips speak right things.
  17. Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of LORD all the day long.
  18. For surely there is a reward, and thy hope shall not be cut off.
  19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.
  20. Be not among winebibbers, among gluttonous eaters of flesh.
  21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe [a man] with rags.
  22. Hearken to thy father who begot thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
  23. Buy the truth, and do not sell it, [yea], wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
  24. The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise son will have joy of him.
  25. Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and let her who bore thee rejoice.
  26. My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes delight in my ways.
  27. For a harlot is a deep ditch, and an interloping woman is a narrow pit.
  28. Yea, she lays in wait as a robber, and increases the treacherous among men.
  29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
  30. Those who tarry long at the wine. Those who go to seek out mixed wine.
  31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
  32. At the end it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
  33. Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
  34. Yea, thou shall be as he who lays down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lays upon the top of a mast.
  35. They have stricken me, [thou shall say], and I was not hurt. They have beaten me, and I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.