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17 May your heart[a] not envy the sinners,
    but live in fear of Yahweh all day.[b]
18 Surely[c] there is a future,
    and your hope will not be cut off.
19 You, my child, hear and be wise,
    and direct your heart[d] on the road.
20 Do not be among drinkers of wine,
    among gluttonous eaters of their meat.[e]
21 For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor,
    and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.
22 Listen to your father—he who gave you life,[f]
    and do not despise your mother when[g] she is old.
23 Buy truth and do not sell it,
    wisdom and instruction and understanding.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:17 Or “mind”
  2. Proverbs 23:17 Literally “all the day”
  3. Proverbs 23:18 Literally “For if”
  4. Proverbs 23:19 Or “mind”
  5. Proverbs 23:20 Literally “meat for them”
  6. Proverbs 23:22 Literally “caused you to be born”
  7. Proverbs 23:22 Or “for, because”

17 Let not thy heart envy sinners;
But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:
18 For surely there is a [a]reward;
And thy hope shall not be cut off.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise,
And guide thy heart in the way.
20 Be not among winebibbers,
Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty;
And drowsiness will clothe a man 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 it not;
Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:18 Or, sequel. Or, future. Hebrew latter end.