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Proverbs 23
1 If you take your seat at a great man’s table, take careful note of what you have before you;
2 put a knife to your throat if you are prone to gluttony.
3 Do not crave his choice food, for it is doubtful nourishment.
4 Do not weary yourself with getting rich, and have nothing to do with dishonest gain.
5 You fix your gaze on this, and it is there no longer, for it is able to sprout wings like an eagle that flies off to the sky.
6 Do not dine with a niggardly man, do not crave his choice food.
7 It would be like a tempest in his throat.’Eat and drink’, he tells you, but his heart is not in it.
8 You will spit out what little you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.
9 Do not waste words on a fool, he will not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.
10 Do not displace the ancient landmark or encroach on orphans’ lands,
11 for he who avenges them is strong and will take up their cause against you.
12 Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to words that are wise.
13 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to kill him.
14 A stroke of the cane and you save him from Sheol.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,
16 and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.
17 Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but be steady every day in the fear of Yahweh;
18 for there is a morrow, and your hope will not be nullified.
19 Listen, my son, and learn to be wise, and guide your heart in the way…
20 Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;
21 for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves, and a drowsy head makes a wearer of rags.
22 Listen to your father who begot you, do not despise your mother in her old age.
23 Truth you must purchase, never sell; this is wisdom, discipline, and discernment.
24 The father of the virtuous man will rejoice indeed, he who fathers a wise man will have joy of it.
25 May you be the joy of your father, the gladness of her who bore you!
26 My son, attend to me, keep your eyes fixed on my advice:
27 a harlot is a deep pit, a narrow well, the woman who is a stranger.
28 Yes, like a robber she is on the watch and many are the men she dupes.
29 For whom is everybody’s pity and everyone’s contempt, for whom is strife reserved, for whom dissatisfaction, for whom blows struck from all sides, for whom the clouded eye?
30 For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the well-blended wine.
31 Never relish how red it is, this wine, how sparkling in the cup, how smooth its flow.
32 In the end its bite is like a serpent’s, its sting as sharp as an adder’s.
33 Your eyes wilt see strange things, distorted words will come from your heart.
34 You will be like one sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.
35 ‘Struck me, have they? But I’m not hurt. Beaten me? I don’t feel anything. When shall I wake up?… I’ll ask for more of it!’