1.When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, ^aconsider diligently what is before thee,

2.^bAnd put the knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to the appetite.

3.Be not desirous of his dainty meats: ^cfor it is a deceivable meat.

4.Travail not to much to be rich: but cease from thy ^dwisdom.

5.Wilt thou cast thine eyes upon it, which is nothing? for riches taketh her to her wings, as an eagle, and flieth into the heaven.

6.Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an ^eevil eye, neither desire his dainty meats.

7.For as though he thought it in his heart, so will he say unto thee, Eat and drink: but his heart is not with thee.

8.Thou shalt vomit thy ^fmorsels that thou hast eaten, and thou shalt lose thy sweet words.

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

10.^*Remove not the ancient bounds, and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.

11.For he that redemeth them, is mighty: he will ^*defend their cause against thee.

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

13.^*Withhold not correction from the child: if thou smite him with the rod, he shall not die.

14.Thou shalt smite him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from ^ghell.

15.My son, if thine heart be wise, mine heart shall rejoice and I also.

16.And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak righteous things.

17.^*Let not thine heart be envious against sinners: but let it be in the fear of the Lord continually.

18.For surely there is an end, ^hand thy hope shall not be cut off.

19.O thou my son, hear, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the ⁱway.

20.Keep not company with ^{^}drunkards, nor with ^{^}gluttons.

21.For the drunkard and the glutton shalbe poor, and the sleeper shalbe clothed with rags.

22.Obey thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

23.Buy ^kthe truth, but sell it not, likewise wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

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

25.Thy father and thy mother shalbe glad, and she that bare thee, shall rejoice.

26.My son, give me ^lthine heart, and let thine eyes delite in my ways.

27.^*For a whore is as a deep ditch, and a strange woman is as a narrow pit.

28.^*Also she lieth in wait as for a prey, ^mand she increaseth the transgressors among men.

29.To whom is wo? to whom is sorrow? to whom is strife? to whom is murmuring? to whom are wounds without cause? and to whom is the redness of the eyes?

30.Even to them that tarry long at the wine, to them that go, ⁿand seek mixed wine.

31.Look not thou upon the wine, when it is red, and when it sheweth his colour in the cup, or goeth down pleasantly.

32.In the end thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrice.

33.Thine ^oeyes shall look upon strange women, and thine heart shall speak lewd things.

34.And thou shalt be as one that sleepest in the middes of the ^psea, and as he that sleepest in the top of the mast.

35.They have stricken me, shalt thou say, but I was not sick: they have beaten me, but I knewe not, when I awoke: therefore will I ^qseek it yet still.

Proverbs 23

Notes