Proverbs 23 · Clearspring

True Riches

Saying 7

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.+

Saying 8

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.+

Saying 9

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.+

Saying 10

⁹Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.+

Saying 11

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.+

Saying 12

¹²Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge.+

Saying 13

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.+

Saying 14

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.+

Saying 15

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.+

Saying 16

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.+

Saying 17

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.+

Saying 18

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.+

Saying 19

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.+