Proverbs 23:1-14 ▼

1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, mark well the one who is before you;

2 Stick the knife in your gullet if you have a ravenous appetite.

3 Do not desire his delicacies; it is food that deceives.

4 Do not wear yourself out to gain wealth, cease to be worried about it;

5 When your glance flits to it, it is gone! For assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.

6 Do not take food with unwilling hosts, and do not desire their delicacies;

7 For like something stuck in the throat is that food. “Eat and drink,” they say to you, but their hearts are not with you;

8 The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.

9 Do not speak in the hearing of fools; they will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of the fatherless;

11 For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.

12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ear to words of knowledge.

13 Do not withhold discipline from youths; if you beat them with the rod, they will not die.

14 Beat them with the rod, and you will save them from Sheol.