Darby - Proverbs - 23

23:1  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;

23:2  and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

23:3  Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.

23:4  Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:

23:5  wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.

23:6  Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.

23:7  For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.

23:8  Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.

23:9  Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

23:10  Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

23:11  for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.

23:12  Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

23:13  Withhold not correction from the child; for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:

23:14  thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

23:15  My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;

23:16  and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.

23:17  Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day;

23:18  for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

23:19  Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.

23:20  Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.

23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.

23:22  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

23:23  Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.

23:24  The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him:

23:25  let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.

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

23:27  For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

23:28  She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.

23:29  Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?

23:30  — They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.

23:31  Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:

23:32  at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

23:33  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;

23:34  and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:

23:35  — “They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.”