Proverbs, 23

1. If you take your seat at a great man's table, take careful note of what you have before you;

1. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you;

2. if you have a big appetite put a knife to your throat.

2. and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.

3. Do not hanker for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

3. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

4. Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth, stop applying your mind to this.

4. Do not toil to acquire wealth; be wise enough to desist.

5. Fix your gaze on it, and it is there no longer, for it is able to sprout wings like an eagle that flies off to the sky.

5. When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes to itself wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

6. Do not eat the food of anyone whose eye is jealous, do not hanker for his delicacies.

6. Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies;

7. For what he is really thinking about is himself: 'Eat and drink,' he tells you, but his heart is not with you.

7. for he is like one who is inwardly reckoning. "Eat and drink!" he says to you; but his heart is not with you.

8. You will spit out whatever you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.

8. You will vomit up the morsels which you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.

9. Do not waste words on a fool, who will not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.

9. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10. Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone, or encroach on orphans' lands,

10. Do not remove an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless;

11. for they have a powerful avenger, and he will take up their cause against you.

11. for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.

12. Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to instructive sayings.

12. Apply your mind to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.

13. Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal.

13. Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

14. Give him a stroke of the cane, you will save his soul from Sheol.

14. If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from Sheol.

15. My child, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,

15. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.

16. and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.

16. My soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.

17. Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but remain steady every day in the fear of Yahweh;

17. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.

18. for there is a future, and your hope will not come to nothing.

18. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

19. Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.

19. Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.

20. Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;

20. Be not among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat;

21. for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves, and sleepiness is clothed in rags.

21. for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

22. Listen to your father from whom you are sprung, do not despise your mother in her old age.

22. Hearken to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

23. Purchase truth -- never sell it-wisdom, discipline, and discernment.

23. Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

24. The father of the upright will rejoice indeed, he who fathers a wise child will have joy of it.

24. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.

25. Your father and mother will be happy, and she who bore you joyful.

25. Let your father and mother be glad, let her who bore you rejoice.

26. My child, pay attention to me, let your eyes take pleasure in my way:

26. My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

27. a prostitute is a deep pit, a narrow well, the woman who belongs to another.

27. For a harlot is a deep pit; an adventuress is a narrow well.

28. Yes, like a brigand, she lies in wait, increasing the number of law-breakers.

28. She lies in wait like a robber and increases the faithless among men.

29. For whom is pity, for whom contempt, for whom is strife, for whom complaint, for whom blows struck at random, for whom the clouded eye?

29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

30. For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.

30. Those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine.

31. Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!

31. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

32. In the end its bite is like a serpent's, its sting as sharp as an adder's.

32. At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.

33. Your eyes will see peculiar things, you will talk nonsense from your heart.

33. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things.

34. You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.

34. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.

35. 'Struck me, have they? But I'm not hurt. Beaten me? I don't feel anything. When shall I wake up? . . I'll ask for more of it!'

35. "They struck me," you will say, "but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink."