Chapter 23

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

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

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

  Labor not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

  For their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause with thee.  

  Apply thy heart to instruction, and thy ears to the words of knowledge.  

  Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.  

  Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.  

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

  Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.  

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

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

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

  Be not among wine-bibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:  

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

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

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

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

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

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

  For a lewd woman is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.  

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

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

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

  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.  

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

  Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.  

  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.  

  They have stricken me, wilt 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.