Proverbs 23-24

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!”

24 Don’t envy evil people,
    and don’t long to be with them.
² Their hearts are focused on violence,
    and their lips speak of trouble.

³ By wisdom a house is built;
    by understanding it is established.
⁴ By knowledge rooms are filled
    with all precious and pleasant wealth.
⁵ A wise person is mightier than a strong one;^[d]
    a knowledgeable person than a powerful one.
⁶ You should make war with guidance;
    victory comes with many counselors.

⁷ Wisdom is beyond foolish people.
    They don’t open their mouths in the gate.
⁸ Those who plot evil
    will be called master schemers.
⁹ The scheming of fools is sin;
    people detest mockers.

¹⁰ If you show yourself weak on a day of distress,
    your strength is too small.
¹¹ Rescue those being taken off to death;
    and from those staggering to the slaughter, don’t hold back.
¹² If you say, “Look, we didn’t know about it,”
    the one who weighs hearts—doesn’t he understand?
    The one who protects your life—he knows.
    He makes people pay for their actions.

¹³ My child, eat honey, for it is good.
    The honeycomb is sweet in your mouth.
¹⁴ Know that wisdom is like that for your whole being.
    If you find it, there is a future.
    Your hope won’t be cut off.

¹⁵ Wicked one, don’t wait secretly at the home of the righteous.
    Don’t destroy their dwelling.
¹⁶ The righteous may fall seven times but still get up,
    but the wicked will stumble into trouble.

¹⁷ When your enemies fall, don’t rejoice.
    When they stumble, don’t let your heart be glad,
¹⁸ or the Lord will see it and be displeased,
    and he will turn his anger from them.
¹⁹ Don’t get fighting mad at evil people;
    don’t be envious of the wicked.
²⁰ Indeed, there is no future for the evil;
    the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹ Fear the Lord, my child, as well as the king.
    Don’t associate with those who are rebellious.
²² Disaster comes suddenly from them.
    Who can know the ruin that both can bring?

Partiality in judgment isn’t good.

²⁴ Those who say to the guilty, “You are innocent”—
    the people will curse them.
    Nations will condemn them.
²⁵ But it will go well for those who rebuke them.
    A rich blessing will come to them.
²⁶ Those who speak honestly
    are like those who kiss on the lips.

²⁷ Get your outside work done;
    make preparations in the field;
    then you can build your house.

²⁸ Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without reason;
    don’t deceive with your lips.
²⁹ Don’t say, “I’ll do to them what they did to me.
    I’ll pay them back for their actions.”

³⁰ I happened upon the field of a lazy person,
    by the vineyard of one with no sense.
³¹ Thorns grew all over it;
    weeds covered the ground,
    and the stone wall was falling down.
³² I observed this and took it to heart;
    I saw it and learned a lesson.
³³ “A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little lying down with folded arms”—
³⁴     and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
    deprivation like a man with a shield.