Proverbs 23 - American Standard Version 2015 American Standard Version 2015
Proverbs 23

¹ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,\par\tab Consider diligently him that is before thee;

² And put a knife to thy throat,\par\tab If thou be a man given to appetite.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties;\par\tab Seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴ Weary not thyself to be rich;\par\tab Cease from thine own wisdom.

⁵ Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?\par\tab For {\i riches} certainly make themselves wings,\par\tab Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,\par\tab Neither desire thou his dainties:

⁷ For as he thinketh within himself, so is he:\par\tab Eat and drink, saith he to thee;\par\tab But his heart is not with thee.

⁸ The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up,\par\tab And lose thy sweet words.

⁹ Speak not in the hearing of a fool;\par\tab For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰ Remove not the ancient landmark;\par\tab And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong;\par\tab He will plead their cause against thee.

¹² Apply thy heart unto instruction,\par\tab And thine ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³ Withhold not correction from the child;\par\tab {\i For} if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod,\par\tab And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵ My son, if thy heart be wise,\par\tab My heart will be glad, even mine:

¹⁶ Yea, my heart will rejoice,\par\tab When thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not thy heart envy sinners;\par\tab But {\i be thou} in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:

¹⁸ For surely there is a reward;\par\tab And thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear thou, my son, and be wise,\par\tab And guide thy heart in the way.

²⁰ Be not among winebibbers,\par\tab Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty;\par\tab And drowsiness will clothe {\i a man} with rags.

²² Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,\par\tab And despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth, and sell it not;\par\tab {\i Yea}, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;\par\tab And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.

²⁵ Let thy father and thy mother be glad,\par\tab And let her that bare thee rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me thy heart;\par\tab And let thine eyes delight in my ways.

²⁷ For a harlot is a deep ditch;\par\tab And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber,\par\tab And increaseth the treacherous among men.

²⁹ Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions?\par\tab Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause?\par\tab Who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰ They that tarry long at the wine;\par\tab They that go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,\par\tab When it sparkleth in the cup,\par\tab When it goeth down smoothly:

³² At the last it biteth like a serpent,\par\tab And stingeth like an adder.

³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange things,\par\tab And thy heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴ Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,\par\tab Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ They have stricken me, {\i shalt thou say}, and I was not hurt;\par\tab They have beaten me, and I felt it not:\par\tab When shall I awake?\par\tab I will seek it yet again.\par