Proverbs Chapter 23 (Index)

001  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

002  And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

003  Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

004  Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

005  Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

006  Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

007  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

008  The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

009  Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

010  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

011  For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

012  Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

013  Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

014  Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

015  My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

016  Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

017  Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

018  For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

019  Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

020  Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

021  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

022  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

023  Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

024  The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

025  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

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

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

028  She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

029  Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

030  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

031  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

032  At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

033  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

034  Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

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