Proverbs 23-24

Jubilee Bible 2000

23 ¶ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee;

² and put a knife to thy throat if thou art a man given to appetite.

³ Do not be desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.

⁴ ¶ Do not labour to be rich; cease from thine own wisdom.

⁵ Wilt thou set thine eyes upon riches which are not? For they shall certainly make themselves wings; they shall fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

⁶ ¶ Do not eat the bread of anyone who has an evil eye, neither desire his dainty foods;

⁷ for as he thinks in his soul, so is he; Eat and drink, he shall say unto thee, but his heart is not with thee.

⁸ Didst thou eat thy part? Thou shalt vomit it up and lose thy sweet words.

⁹ ¶ Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the prudence of thy words.

¹⁰ ¶ Do not remove the old landmark, and do not enter into the inheritance of the fatherless:

¹¹ For their redeemer is mighty; he shall judge their cause against thee.

¹² ¶ Apply thine heart unto chastening and thine ears to the words of wisdom.

¹³ Do not withhold correction from the child; for if thou shall beat him with the rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵ My son, if thy heart is wise, my heart shall also rejoice;

¹⁶ my kidneys shall also rejoice when thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ ¶ Let not thy heart envy sinners, but persevere in the fear of the LORD all day long.

¹⁸ For surely there is an end, and thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ ¶ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and straighten thy heart in the way.

²⁰ Do not be among those who are drunk with wine; nor among gluttonous eaters of food;

²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall cause them to wear 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, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice, and he that begets a wise child shall have joy with him.

²⁵ Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bore thee shall rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ She also lies in wait as for a prey and increases the transgressors among men.

²⁹ ¶ For who shall be the woe? for who shall be the woe? for who contention? for who quarrels? for who the wounds without cause? who shall have redness of eyes?

³⁰ For those that tarry long at the wine; those that go to seek mixed wine.

³¹ Do not look upon the wine when it is red, when it gives its colour in the cup, it goes down smoothly.

³² At the last it bites like a serpent and stings 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 lies down in the midst of the sea or as he that sleeps at the rudder.

³⁵ They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not; when I shall awake, I will seek it yet again.

24 ¶ Do not be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them.

² For their heart studies robbery, and their lips speak evil.

³ ¶ Through wisdom the house shall be built, and with intelligence it shall be established:

⁴ And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and beautiful riches.

⁵ The wise man is strong; and the man of understanding is a mighty man of valour.

⁶ For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war, and in the multitude of counsellors there is saving health.

⁷ ¶ Wisdom, is too high for a fool; he shall not open his mouth in the gate.

⁸ He that devises to do evil shall be called a man of evil designs.

⁹ The thought of the foolish is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to men.

¹⁰ ¶ If thou art slack in the day of tribulation, thy strength shall be reduced.

¹¹ ¶ If thou forbear to deliver those that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain,

¹² if thou should say, Behold, we knew it not; shall not he that weighs the hearts understand it? and he that keeps thy soul, does he not know it? and shall he not render to every man according to his works?

¹³ ¶ My son, eat of the honey, because it is good, and of the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:

¹⁴ So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: if thou shalt find it, and in the end thy hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁵ ¶ Do not lay in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; do not spoil his resting place.

¹⁶ For a just man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into evil.

¹⁷ ¶ Do not rejoice when thy enemy falls, and do not let thy heart be glad when he stumbles

¹⁸ lest the LORD see it and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

¹⁹ ¶ Do not meddle with those who are evil, neither be envious of the wicked;

²⁰ for the evil man shall not come to a good end; the fire of the wicked shall be put out.

²¹ ¶ My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not meddle with those that are given to change,

²² for their calamity shall rise suddenly; and the ruin of them both, who shall know it?

²³ ¶ These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.

²⁴ He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the peoples curse, nations shall abhor him:

²⁵ But unto those that rebuke him shall be delight, and a blessing of good shall come upon them.

²⁶ The lips of the one that gives a right answer shall be kissed.

²⁷ ¶ Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in thine inheritance, and afterwards thou shalt build thine house.

²⁸ ¶ Do not be a false witness against thy neighbour, and do not flatter with thy lips.

²⁹ Do not say, I will do unto him as he has done unto me; I will render to the man according to his work.

³⁰ ¶ I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding,

³¹ and, behold, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered its face, and its stone wall was broken down.

³² Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it and received chastening.

³³ Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

³⁴ So shall thy poverty come as one that travels and thy want as an armed man.