RWebster - Proverbs - 23

23:1  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

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

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

23:4  Labour not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.

23:5  Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make to themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

23:6  Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his delicacies:

23:7  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

23:8  The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

23:9  Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

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

23:11  For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

23:12  Apply thy heart to instruction, and thy 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 hell.

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

23:16  Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

23:17  Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

23:18  For surely there is an end; and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

23:19  Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.

23:20  Be not among winebibbers; among gluttonous eaters of flesh:

23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

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

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

23:24  The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

23:25  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice.

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

23:27  For an harlot is a deep ditch; and an adulteress is a narrow pit.

23:28  She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

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

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

23:31  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

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

23:33  Thy eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

23:34  And 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.

23:35  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.