Proverbs 23 — BBE
23Verse 1When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;Verse 2And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.Verse 3Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.Verse 4Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.Verse 5Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.Verse 6Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:Verse 7For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you.Verse 8The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.Verse 9Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.Verse 10Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;Verse 11For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.Verse 12Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.Verse 13Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.Verse 14Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld.Verse 15My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;Verse 16And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.Verse 17Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;Verse 18For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.Verse 19Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.Verse 20Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:Verse 21For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed.Verse 22Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.Verse 23Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.Verse 24The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.Verse 25Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.Verse 26My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.Verse 27For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.Verse 28Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.Verse 29Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?Verse 30Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.Verse 31Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:Verse 32In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.Verse 33Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.Verse 34Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.Verse 35They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.