Proverbs Chapter 23 (Index)
001 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
002 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
003 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
004 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
005 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
006 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
007 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
008 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
009 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
010 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
011 For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
012 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
013 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
014 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
015 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
016 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
017 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
018 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
019 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
020 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
021 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
022 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
023 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
024 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
025 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
026 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
027 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
028 She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
029 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
030 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
031 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
032 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
033 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
034 Yea, 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.
035 They have stricken me, shalt 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.