# Proverbs 23 [[Proverbs 22|←]] • [[Proverbs 24|→]] --- ### 1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what before thee: ### 2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou a man given to appetite. ### 3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they 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 certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. ### 6 Eat thou not the bread of an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: ### 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart not with thee. ### 8 The morsel 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 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 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 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 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 not; wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. ### 24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise 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 a deep ditch; and a strange woman a narrow pit. ### 28 She also lieth in wait as 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, it moveth itself aright. ### 32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. ### 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, I was not sick; they have beaten me, I felt not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.