Proverbs 23
Lexham English Bible
23 When you sit to eat with a ruler,
you shall surely observe what is before you,
2 and you shall put a knife to your throat
if you have a big appetite.[a]
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
for[b] it is food of deception.
4 Do not tire in order to become rich;
out of your understanding, may you desist.
5 Your eyes will alight[c] on it, but there is nothing to it,
for suddenly it will make for itself wings
like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.
6 Do not eat the bread of the stingy,[d]
and do not desire his delicacies.
7 For, like hair in his throat,[e] so it is.[f]
“Eat and drink!” he will say to you,
but his heart will not be with you.
8 Your morsel you have eaten, you will vomit it up,
and you will waste your pleasant words.
9 In the ears of a fool do not speak,
for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not remove an ancient boundary marker,
and on the fields of orphans do not encroach;
11 For their redeemer is strong,
he himself will plead their cause against you.
12 Apply your heart[g] to instruction,
and your ear to sayings of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child,
if you will beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14 As for you, with the rod you shall beat him,
and his life[h] you will save from Sheol.[i]
15 My child, if your heart[j] is wise,
my heart will be glad—even me!
16 And my insides[k] will rejoice
when your lips speak what is upright.
17 May your heart[l] not envy the sinners,
but live in fear of Yahweh all day.[m]
18 Surely[n] there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
19 You, my child, hear and be wise,
and direct your heart[o] on the road.
20 Do not be among drinkers of wine,
among gluttonous eaters of their meat.[p]
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,[q]
and do not despise your mother when[r] she is old.
23 Buy truth and do not sell it,
wisdom and instruction and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous will surely rejoice;
he who bears a wise person will be happy with him.
25 May your father and your mother be glad,
and may she who bore you rejoice.
26 My child, may you give your heart[s] to me,
and may your eyes delight in my ways.
27 For a deep pit is a prostitute,[t]
and a narrow well is an adulteress.[u]
28 She is also like a robber lying in wait,
and the faithless among mankind she increases.
29 To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint?
To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?
30 To those who linger over wine,
to those who come to try mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles[v] on the cup,
going down smoothly.
32 In the end,[w] it will bite like a serpent,
and it will sting like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart[x] will speak perverse things.
34 And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea,
and like him who lies down on top of a mast.
35 “They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it.
When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:2 Literally “lord/master of life”
- Proverbs 23:3 Hebrew “and”
- Proverbs 23:5 Literally “cause to fly”
- Proverbs 23:6 Literally “stingy of eye”
- Proverbs 23:7 Literally “soul,” or “inner self”
- Proverbs 23:7 Or “is he”
- Proverbs 23:12 Or “mind”
- Proverbs 23:14 Or “soul,” or “inner self”
- Proverbs 23:14 A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld
- Proverbs 23:15 Or “mind”
- Proverbs 23:16 Literally “kidneys”
- Proverbs 23:17 Or “mind”
- Proverbs 23:17 Literally “all the day”
- Proverbs 23:18 Literally “For if”
- Proverbs 23:19 Or “mind”
- Proverbs 23:20 Literally “meat for them”
- Proverbs 23:22 Literally “caused you to be born”
- Proverbs 23:22 Or “for, because”
- Proverbs 23:26 Or “mind”
- Proverbs 23:27 Or “whore”
- Proverbs 23:27 Literally “a foreign woman”
- Proverbs 23:31 Literally “gives its eye”
- Proverbs 23:32 Literally “end him”
- Proverbs 23:33 Or “mind”
Proverbs 23
Common English Bible
23 When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
carefully consider what is in front of you.
2 Place a knife at your throat
to control your appetite.
3 Don’t long for the ruler’s delicacies;
the food misleads.
4 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich;
be smart enough to stop.
5 When your eyes fly to wealth
it is gone; it grows wings
like an eagle and flies heavenward.
6 Don’t eat food with stingy people;
don’t long for their delicacies,
7 because they are like a hair in the throat.[a]
They say to you, “Eat and drink!”
but they don’t mean it.
8 You will eat scraps and vomit them out.
You will waste your pleasant words.
9 Don’t speak in the ears of fools,
for they will scorn your insightful words.
10 Don’t remove an ancient boundary marker;
don’t invade the fields of orphans,
11 for their redeemer is strong.
He will bring charges against you.
12 Bring your mind to instruction,
your ear to knowledgeable sayings.
13 Don’t withhold instruction from children;
if you strike them with a rod, they won’t die.
14 Strike them with a rod,
and you will save their lives from the grave.[b]
15 My child, if your heart is wise,
then my heart too will be happy.
16 My inner being will rejoice
when your lips speak with integrity.
17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners,
but fear the Lord constantly;
18 then you will have a future,
and your hope won’t be cut off.
19 Listen, my child, and be wise!
Keep your mind straight on the path.
20 Don’t hang out with those who get drunk on wine
or those who eat too much meat,
21 because drunks and gluttons will be impoverished;
their stupor will clothe them in rags.
22 Listen to your father, who gave you life;
don’t despise your elderly mother.
23 Buy truth and don’t sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous will be very happy;
the one who gives life to the wise will rejoice.
25 Your father and your mother will rejoice;
she who gave you birth will be happy.
26 My child, give your mind to me
and let your eyes keep to my path.
27 A prostitute is a deep pit,
and a foreign woman is a narrow well.
28 Indeed, she ambushes like a robber
and increases the number of the faithless.
29 Who is suffering?
Who is uneasy?
Who has arguments?
Who has complaints?
Who has unnecessary wounds?
Who has glazed eyes?—
30 those who linger over wine;
those who go looking for mixed wine.
31 Don’t look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup,
going down smoothly.
32 In the end, it bites like a snake
and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart will speak distorted words.
34 You will be like one who lies down while out on the sea[c]
or one who lies on top of a mast.
35 “Though hit, I feel no pain;
though beaten up, I don’t know anything about it.
When I wake up,
I’ll look for wine again!”
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:7 LXX; Heb uncertain
- Proverbs 23:14 Heb Sheol
- Proverbs 23:34 Or in the heart of the sea
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Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible