Proverbs 23:1-21 ▼

1 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 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 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 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 hell.

15 My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;

16 Yes, my 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 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.