Proverbs 23

New American Standard Bible

On Life and Conduct

23 When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
Consider carefully ^[a]what is before you,
²And put a knife to your throat
If you are a ^(A)person of great appetite.
³Do not ^(B)desire his delicacies,
For it is deceptive food.

⁴^(C)Do not weary yourself to gain wealth;
^[b]^(D)Stop dwelling on it.
⁵^[c]When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.
For ^(E)wealth certainly makes itself wings
Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

⁶^(F)Do not eat the bread of ^[d]a ^(G)selfish person;
Or desire his delicacies;
⁷For as he ^[e]thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But ^(H)his heart is not with you.
⁸You will ^(I)vomit up ^[f]the morsel you have eaten
And waste your ^[g]compliments.

⁹^(J)Do not speak ^[h]to be heard by a fool,
For he will ^(K)despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient boundary
Or ^(L)go into the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹For their ^(M)Redeemer is strong;
^(N)He will plead their case against you.
¹²Apply your heart to discipline,
And your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³^(O)Do not withhold discipline from a child;
Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
¹⁴You shall strike him with the rod
And ^(P)rescue his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is ^(Q)wise,
My own heart also will be glad,
¹⁶And my ^[i]innermost being will rejoice
When your lips speak ^(R)what is right.

¹⁷^(S)Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But live in ^[j]the ^(T)fear of the Lord ^[k]always.
¹⁸Certainly there is a ^[l]^(U)future,
And your ^(V)hope will not be cut off.
¹⁹Listen, my son, and ^(W)be wise,
And ^(X)direct your heart in the way.
²⁰Do not be with ^(Y)heavy drinkers of wine,
Or with ^(Z)gluttonous eaters of meat;
²¹For the ^(AA)heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty,
And ^(AB)drowsiness will clothe one with rags.

²²^(AC)Listen to your father, who fathered you,
And ^(AD)do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³^(AE)Buy truth, and do not sell it,
Get wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And ^(AF)he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
²⁵Let your ^(AG)father and your mother be glad,
And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

²⁶^(AH)Give me your heart, my son,
And let your eyes ^[m]^(AI)delight in my ways.
²⁷For a prostitute is a ^(AJ)deep pit,
And a ^[n]^(AK)strange woman is a narrow well.
²⁸Certainly she ^(AL)lurks as a robber,
And increases the treacherous among mankind.

²⁹Who has ^(AM)woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has red eyes?
³⁰Those who ^(AN)linger long over wine,
Those who go to ^[o]taste ^(AO)mixed wine.
³¹Do not look at wine when it is red,
When it ^[p]sparkles in the cup,
When it ^(AP)goes down smoothly;
³²In the end it ^(AQ)bites like a snake
And stings like a ^(AR)viper.
³³Your eyes will see strange things
And your ^[q]mind will ^(AS)say perverse things.
³⁴And you will be like one who lies down in the ^[r]middle of the sea,
Or like one who lies down on the top of a ^[s]mast.
³⁵“They ^(AT)struck me, but I did not become ^[t]ill;
They beat me, but I did not know it.
When will I awake?
I will ^(AU)seek ^[u]another drink.”

Footnotes

Proverbs 23:1 Or who
Proverbs 23:4 Lit Refrain from your understanding of it
Proverbs 23:5 Lit Will your eyes fly upon it and it is not?
Proverbs 23:6 Lit an evil eye
Proverbs 23:7 Lit reckons in his soul
Proverbs 23:8 Lit your
Proverbs 23:8 Lit pleasant words
Proverbs 23:9 Lit in the ears of a
Proverbs 23:16 Lit kidneys
Proverbs 23:17 Or reverence for
Proverbs 23:17 Lit all the day
Proverbs 23:18 Lit latter end
Proverbs 23:26 Another reading is observe
Proverbs 23:27 Lit foreign
Proverbs 23:30 Or search out
Proverbs 23:31 Lit gives its eye
Proverbs 23:33 Lit heart
Proverbs 23:34 Lit heart
Proverbs 23:34 Or lookout
Proverbs 23:35 I.e., from the effect of wounds
Proverbs 23:35 Lit it yet again

1 Thessalonians 2

New American Standard Bible

Paul’s Ministry

2 For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our ^[a]^(A)reception among you ^(B)was not in vain, ²but after we had already suffered and been ^(C)treated abusively in ^(D)Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God ^(E)to speak to you the ^(F)gospel of God ^[b]amid much ^[c]^(G)opposition. ³For our ^(H)exhortation does not come from ^(I)error or ^(J)impurity or ^[d]by way of ^(K)deceit; ⁴^(L)but just as we have been approved by God to be ^(M)entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, ^(N)not intending to please people, but to please God, who ^[e]^(O)examines our hearts. ⁵For we never came ^[f]with flattering speech, as you know, nor with ^(P)a pretext ^[g]for greed—^(Q)God is our witness— ⁶nor did we ^(R)seek honor from people, either from you or from others, though ^[h]we could have ^[i]asserted our authority as ^(S)apostles of Christ. ⁷But we ^[j]proved to be ^[k]^(T)gentle ^[l]among you. ^(U)As a nursing mother ^[m]tenderly cares for her own children, ⁸in the same way we had a fond affection for you and were delighted to ^(V)share with you not only the ^(W)gospel of God, but also our own ^[n]lives, because you had become ^[o]very dear to us.

⁹For you recall, brothers and sisters, our ^(X)labor and hardship: it was by ^(Y)working night and day so as not to be a ^(Z)burden to any of you, that we proclaimed to you the ^(AA)gospel of God. ¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is ^(AB)God, of ^(AC)how devoutly and rightly and blamelessly we ^[p]behaved toward you ^[q]believers; ¹¹just as you know how we were ^(AD)exhorting and encouraging and ^(AE)imploring each one of you as ^(AF)a father would his own children, ¹²so that you would ^(AG)walk in a manner worthy of the God who ^(AH)calls you into His own kingdom and ^(AI)glory.

¹³For this reason we also constantly ^(AJ)thank God that when you received the ^(AK)word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it ^(AL)not as the word of mere men, but as what it really is, the word of God, ^(AM)which also is at work in you who believe. ¹⁴For you, brothers and sisters, became ^(AN)imitators of ^(AO)the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are ^(AP)in Judea, for ^(AQ)you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, ^(AR)even as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵^(AS)who both killed the Lord Jesus and ^(AT)the prophets, and ^[r]drove us out. ^[s]They are not pleasing to God, ^[t]but hostile to all people, ¹⁶^(AU)hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles ^(AV)so that they may be saved; with the result that they always ^[u]^(AW)reach the limit of their sins. But ^(AX)wrath has come upon them ^[v]fully.

¹⁷But we, brothers and sisters, having been orphaned from you by absence for a ^[w]short while—^(AY)in ^[x]person, not in ^[y]spirit—were all the more eager with great desire ^(AZ)to see your face. ¹⁸^[z]For ^(BA)we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, ^[aa]^(BB)more than once—and ^(BC)Satan ^(BD)hindered us. ¹⁹For who is our hope, or ^(BE)joy or crown of pride, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His ^[ab]^(BF)coming? Or is it not indeed you? ²⁰For you are ^(BG)our glory and joy.