Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23 New King James Version

 

Listen to Your Father

23 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;
² And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.
³ Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food.

⁴ Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease!
^5 [a]Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

⁶ Do not eat the bread of a^[b] miser,
Nor desire his delicacies;
⁷ For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.
⁸ The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,
And waste your pleasant words.

⁹ Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Do not remove the ancient ^[c]landmark,
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;
¹¹ For their Redeemer is mighty;
He will plead their cause against you.

¹² Apply your heart to instruction,
And your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³ Do not withhold correction from a child,
For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ You shall beat him with a rod,
And deliver his soul from ^[d]hell.

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise,
My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;
¹⁶ Yes, my ^[e]inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day;
¹⁸ For surely there is a ^[f]hereafter,
And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise;
And guide your heart in the way.
²⁰ Do not mix with winebibbers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

²² Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth, and do not sell it,
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.
²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me your heart,
And let your eyes observe my ways.
²⁷ For a harlot is a deep pit,
And a seductress is a narrow well.
²⁸ She also lies in wait as for a victim,
And increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹ Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it ^[g]swirls around smoothly;
³² At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.
³⁴ Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the ^[h]midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
³⁵ “They have struck me, but I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”