Proverbs 23
23
1When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;
2And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.
3Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food.
4#(Prov. 28:20; Matt. 6:19; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10; Heb. 13:5)Do not overwork to be rich;
#Rom. 12:16Because of your own understanding, cease!
5Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
6Do not eat the bread of #Deut. 15:9; Prov. 28:22a miser,
Nor desire his delicacies;
7For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
“Eat and drink!” #Prov. 12:2he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.
8The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,
And waste your pleasant words.
9#Prov. 9:8; Matt. 7:6Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10Do not remove the ancient landmark,
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
11#Prov. 22:23For their Redeemer is mighty;
He will plead their cause against you.
12Apply your heart to instruction,
And your ears to words of knowledge.
13#Prov. 13:24Do not withhold correction from a child,
For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
14You shall beat him with a rod,
And deliver his soul from hell.
15My son, if your heart is wise,
My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;
16Yes, my inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak right things.
17#Ps. 37:1; Prov. 24:1, 19Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But #Prov. 28:14be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day;
18#(Ps. 37:37)For surely there is a hereafter,
And your hope will not be cut off.
19Hear, my son, and be wise;
And guide your heart in the way.
20#Prov. 20:1; 23:29, 30; Is. 5:22; Matt. 24:49; (Luke 21:34); Rom. 13:13; (Eph. 5:18)Do not mix with winebibbers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
22#Prov. 1:8; Eph. 6:1Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23#Prov. 4:7; 18:15; (Matt. 13:44)Buy the truth, and do not sell it,
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
24#Prov. 10:1The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.
25Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who bore you rejoice.
26My son, give me your heart,
And let your eyes observe my ways.
27#Prov. 22:14For a harlot is a deep pit,
And a seductress is a narrow well.
28#Prov. 7:12; Eccl. 7:26She also lies in wait as for a victim,
And increases the unfaithful among men.
29#Is. 5:11, 22Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who #Gen. 49:12has redness of eyes?
30#1 Sam. 25:36; Prov. 20:1; 21:17; Is. 5:11; 28:7; (Eph. 5:18)Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of #Ps. 75:8mixed wine.
31Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it swirls around smoothly;
32At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.
33Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.
34Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
35“They#Prov. 27:22; Jer. 5:3 have struck me, but I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When shall #Eph. 4:19I awake, that I may seek another drink?”
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
