|
Chapter 23 |
| 1 | When thou
sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
|
| 2 | And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
|
| 3 | Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. |
| 4 |
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. |
| 5 | Wilt thou set
thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings;
they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. |
|
6 | Eat thou not the bread of
him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: |
| 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. |
|
8 | The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt
thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. |
|
9 | Speak not in the ears of a
fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. |
| 10 | Remove not
the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: |
| 11 |
For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. |
| 12 |
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of
knowledge. |
| 13
| Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou
beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. |
|
14 | Thou shalt beat him
with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. |
| 15 | My son, if
thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. |
| 16 | Yea, my
reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. |
| 17 | Let not
thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day
long. |
| 18 |
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be
cut off. |
| 19
| Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in
the way. |
| 20
| Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of
flesh: |
| 21
| For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty:
and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. |
|
22 | Hearken unto thy father
that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. |
| 23 | Buy
the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and
understanding. |
|
24 | The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice:
and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. |
| 25 | Thy
father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall
rejoice. |
| 26
| My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe
my ways. |
| 27
| For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a
narrow pit. |
|
28 | She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and
increaseth the transgressors among men. |
|
29 | Who hath woe? who hath
sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause?
who hath redness of eyes? |
|
30 | They that tarry long at the wine; they
that go to seek mixed wine. |
|
31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is
red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
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| 32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
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| 33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter
perverse things. |
|
34 | Yea, 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. |
| 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. |
