Proverbs Chapter 23

From The Open Bible Project

23:1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

• (a) Eat with sobriety.

23:2 put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite.

• (b) Bridle your appetite, as if by force and violence.

23:3 Don't be desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful food.

• (c) For often the rich when they bid their inferiors to their tables, it is not for the love they bear them, but for their own secret purposes.

23:4 Don't weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

• (d) Bestow not the gifts that God has given you, to get worldly riches.

23:5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

23:6 Don't eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don't crave his delicacies:

• (e) That is, covetous, as contrary a good eye is taken for liberal as in (Proverbs 22:9).

23:7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

23:8 The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.

• (f) He will not cease till he has done you some harm, and his flattering words will come to no use.

23:9 Don't speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

23:10 Don't move the ancient boundary stone. Don't encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

23:11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

23:12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

23:13 Don't withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

23:14 Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from [9] Sheol [See Proverbs Footnotes 9].

• (g) That is, from destruction.

23:15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine:

23:16 yes, my heart will rejoice, when your lips speak what is right.

23:17 Don't let your heart envy sinners; but rather fear Yahweh all the day long.

23:18 Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

• (h) The prosperity of the wicked will not continue.

23:19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!

• (i) In the observation of God’s commandments.

23:20 Don't be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:

23:21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

23:22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and don't despise your mother when she is old.

23:23 Buy the truth, and don't sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

• (k) Spare no cost for truths sake, neither depart from it for any gain.

23:24 The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

23:25 Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!

23:26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

• (l) Give yourself wholly to wisdom.

23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

23:28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.

• (m) She seduces many and causes them to offend God.

23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

23:30 Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.

• (n) Who by art make wine stronger and more pleasant.

23:31 Don't look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

23:32 In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.

23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

• (o) That is, drunkenness will bring you to whoredom.

23:34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

• (p) In such great danger will you be.

23:35 "They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don't feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another."

• (q) Though drunkenness makes them more insensible then beasts, yet they can not refrain.