Proverbs 23)
1 Forasmuch as (taking the act for granted) you sit to eat with a ruler,
Discern diligently what (or who) is before you:
2 Then will you put a knife to your throat,
If you be a man given to soul. (Illustrations: Esau [Gen. 25:30]; Isaac [Gen. 25:28; 27:4]; those referred to in Phil. 3:18,19)
3 Be not desirous of his dainty meals:
For they are meat that deceives.
4 Labor not to be rich: (Illustrations: Lot [Gen. 13;10,13]; the rich fool [Luke 12:12-20. Cp. Prov. 10:16]. See Jeremiah's advice [Jer. 45:5].)
Cease from your own discernment (or discrimination).
5 Will you set your eyes upon that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6 Eat you not the bread of him that has an evil eye,
Neither desire you his dainty meats:
7 For as he estimates himself, so he is: "Eat and drink,"
Says he to you; but his soul is not with you.
8 The morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up,
And lose your sweet words.
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool (= fat, and then dense, or stupid, which comes of it, showing itself in impiety):
For he will despise the intelligence of your sayings (Heb. discourse).
10 Remove not the ancient boundary;
And enter not into the fields of the fatherless (put for all bereaved ones):
11 For their Kinsman-redeemer is mighty;
He shall plead their cause with you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction,
And your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from the youth:
For if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 You shall beat him with the rod,
And shall rescue his soul from Hades.
15 My son, if your heart be wise,
My heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 Yes, my kidneys (put for affections and impulses) shall rejoice,
When your lips speak right things.
17 Let not your heart envy sinners:
But be you in the reverence of the LORD all the day long.
18 For surely there is a latter end (or hereafter);
And your expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Hear you, my son, and be wise,
And guide your heart in the way.
20 Be not among drinkers to excess;
Among riotous selfish eaters:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to dispossession:
And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
22 Hearken to your father that begat you,
And despise not your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not;
Also true wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of a just one shall greatly rejoice:
And he that begets a wise child shall have joy of him.
25 Your father and Your mother shall be glad,
And she that bare you shall rejoice.
26 My son, give me your heart (put for attention),
And let your eyes delight in my ways.
27 For a whore is a deep ditch;
And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.
28 She also lies in wait as for a prey,
And increases the traitors among men.
29 Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions?
Who has babbling? who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
30 They that tarry long at the wine;
They that go to seek mixed (or spiced) wine.
31 Look not you upon the wine when it is red,
When it gives its sparkle in the cup,
When it moves itself aright.
32 At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like an adder.
33 Your eyes shall behold apostate women,
And your heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yes, you shall be as he that lies down in the midst of the sea,
Or as he that lies upon the basket of a mast (i.e. the look-out basket or cradle on the mast).
35 "They have stricken me," shall you say, "and I was not sick;
They have beaten me, and I knew it not:
When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."