Chapter 23

  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;  

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

  Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.  

  Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:  

  wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.  

  Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.  

  For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.  

  Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.  

  Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.  

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

  for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.  

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

  Withhold not correction from the child; for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:  

  thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.  

  My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;  

  and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.  

  Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day;  

  for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.  

  Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.  

  Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.  

  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.  

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

  Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.  

  The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him:  

  let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.  

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

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

  She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.  

  Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?  

  -- They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.  

  Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:  

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

  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;  

  and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:  

  -- ''They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''