AB - Proverbs - 23

23:1  If you sit to eat at the table of a prince, consider attentively the things set before you;

23:2  and apply your hand, knowing that it behooves you to prepare such meats; but if you are very insatiable,

23:3  desire not his provisions; for these belong to a false life.

23:4  If you are poor, measure not yourself with a rich man, but refrain yourself in your wisdom.

23:5  If you should fix your eye upon him, he will disappear; for wings like an eagle's are prepared for him, and he returns to the house of his master.

23:6  Eat not with an envious man, neither desire his meats;

23:7  so he eats and drinks as if anyone should swallow a hair, and do not bring him in to yourself, nor eat your morsel with him;

23:8  for he will vomit it up, and spoil your fair words.

23:9  Say nothing in the ears of a fool, lest at any time he sneer at your wise words.

23:10  Remove not the ancient landmarks, and enter not upon the possession of the fatherless;

23:11  for the Lord is their redeemer; He is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.

23:12  Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.

23:13  Refrain not from chastening a child, for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.

23:14  For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death.

23:15  Son, if your heart is wise, you shall also gladden my heart;

23:16  and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they are right.

23:17  Let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day.

23:18  For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.

23:19  Hear, my son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.

23:20  Be not a winebibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh;

23:21  for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor, and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.

23:22  Listen, my son, to your father which begot you, and despise not your mother because she has grown old.

23:24  A righteous father brings up his children well, and his soul rejoices over a wise son.

23:25  Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.

23:26  My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

23:27  For a strange house is a vessel full of holes, and a strange well is narrow.

23:28  For such a one shall perish suddenly, and every transgressor shall be cut off.

23:29  Who has woe? Who has trouble? Who has quarrels? And who complains and disputes? Who has bruises without a cause? Whose eyes are livid?

23:30  Are not those of them that stay long at wine? Are not those of them that haunt the places where banquets are? Be not drunk with wine; but converse with just men, and converse with them openly.

23:31  For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.

23:32  But at last such a one stretches himself out as one smitten by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent.

23:33  Whenever your eyes shall behold a strange woman, then your mouth shall speak perverse things.

23:34  And you shall lie as in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot in a great storm.

23:35  And you shall say, They struck me, and I was not pained; and they mocked me, and I knew it not: when will it be morning, that I may go and seek those with whom I may go in company?