1890 Darby's Translation of the Holy Scriptures (DBY)

Proverbs 23

1 From this chapter to the five and twentieth are sundry observations of moral virtues, and their contrary vices.

 23:1 ¶ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;

 23:2 and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

 23:3 Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.

 23:4 Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:

 23:5 wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.

 23:6 Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.

 23:7 For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.

 23:8 Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.

 23:9 Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

 23:10 Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

 23:11 for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.

 23:12 Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child; for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:

 23:14 thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

 23:15 My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;

 23:16 and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.

 23:17 Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day;

 23:18 for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

 23:19 Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.

 23:20 Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.

 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.

 23:22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.

 23:24 The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him:

 23:25 let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.

 23:26 My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

 23:27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

 23:28 She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.

 23:29 Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?

 23:30 —They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.

 23:31 Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:

 23:32 at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

 23:33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;

 23:34 and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:

 23:35 —''They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''