23:1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
Consider carefully ①what is before you,
▷ ①Or who
23:2 And put a knife to your throat
If you are a person of great appetite.
23:3 Do not desire his delicacies,
For it is deceptive food.
23:4 Do not weary yourself to gain wealth;
①Stop dwelling on it.
▷ ①Lit Refrain from your understanding of it
23:5 ①When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.
For wealth certainly makes itself wings
Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
▷ ①Lit Will your eyes fly upon it and it is not?
23:6 Do not eat the bread of ①a selfish person;
Or desire his delicacies;
▷ ①Lit an evil eye
23:7 For as he ①thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
▷ ①Lit reckons in his soul
23:8 You will vomit up ①the morsel you have eaten
And waste your ②compliments.
▷ ①Lit your ②Lit pleasant words
23:9 Do not speak ①to be heard by a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.
▷ ①Lit in the ears of a
23:10 Do not move the ancient boundary
Or go into the fields of the fatherless,
23:11 For their Redeemer is strong;
He will plead their case against you.
23:12 Apply your heart to discipline,
And your ears to words of knowledge.
23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
23:14 You shall strike him with the rod
And rescue his soul from Sheol.
23:15 My son, if your heart is wise,
My own heart also will be glad,
23:16 And my ①innermost being will rejoice
When your lips speak what is right.
▷ ①Lit kidneys
23:17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But live in ①the fear of the LORD ②always.
▷ ①Or reverence for ②Lit all the day
23:18 Certainly there is a ①future,
And your hope will not be cut off.
▷ ①Lit latter end
23:19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
And direct your heart in the way.
23:20 Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
23:21 For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.
23:22 Listen to your father, who fathered you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.
23:23 Buy truth, and do not sell it,
Get wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
23:24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
23:25 Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.
23:26 Give me your heart, my son,
And let your eyes ①delight in my ways.
▷ ①Another reading is observe
23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit,
And a ①strange woman is a narrow well.
▷ ①Lit foreign
23:28 Certainly she lurks as a robber,
And increases the treacherous among mankind.
23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has red eyes?
23:30 Those who linger long over wine,
Those who go to ①taste mixed wine.
▷ ①Or search out
23:31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
When it ①sparkles in the cup,
When it goes down smoothly;
▷ ①Lit gives its eye
23:32 In the end it bites like a snake
And stings like a viper.
23:33 Your eyes will see strange things
And your ①mind will say perverse things.
▷ ①Lit heart
23:34 And you will be like one who lies down in the ①middle of the sea,
Or like one who lies down on the top of a ②mast.
▷ ①Lit heart ②Or lookout
23:35 “They struck me, but I did not become ①ill;
They beat me, but I did not know it.
When will I awake?
I will seek ②another drink.”
▷ ①I.e., from the effect of wounds ②Lit it yet again