Proverbs of Solomon 23 — The Holy Bible

Understanding and Priorities

If you sit down to dine at a table of princes,

Understand carefully the things put before you;

And apply your hand,

Knowing you should prepare certain things;

And if you are insatiable, do not desire its delicacies,

For these things belong to a false life.

If you are poor, do not measure yourself with a rich man,

But keep away from this in your thinking;

If you fix your eye on him, he will disappear,

For wings like an eagle's are prepared for him,

And he returns to the house of his master.

Do not dine with an envious man,

Neither desire his foods;

For as someone who may swallow a hair,

So he eats and drinks.

Neither invite him in, nor eat your morsel with him;

For he will vomit it forth and maltreat your good words.

Speak nothing into the ears of a man without discernment,

Lest he treat your wise words with contempt.

Do not remove the eternal landmarks,

And do not enter the possession of orphans.

For the Lord who redeems them is mighty,

And He will judge their cause with you.

Give your heart to instruction,

And prepare your ears for words of perception.

Do not withhold instruction from a child,

For if you should strike him with a rod, he would not die;

For you shall strike him with a rod

And deliver his soul from death.

My son, if your heart becomes wise,

You will also gladden my heart;

And your lips shall spend time with the words on my lips,

If they be upright.

Do not let your heart envy sinners,

But be in fear of the Lord the whole day long.

For if you keep these words, you shall have offspring,

And your hope will not depart from you.

A Father's Counsel on Wine and Women

Hear, my son, and become wise,

And direct aright the thoughts of your heart.

Do not be a wine-bibber,

Neither provide contributions of meats or goods at drinking parties.

For every drunkard and fornicator shall become impoverished,

And every sluggard shall clothe himself with tattered and ragged garments.

Hear, my son, your father who begot you,

And do not despise your mother because she has grown old.

A righteous father rears his child well,

And his soul rejoices in a wise son.

Let your father and mother be glad in you,

And let her who bore you rejoice.

My son, give me your heart,

And let your eyes observe my ways;

For a house of prostitution is a pierced vessel

And a strange and empty well;

For he shall perish suddenly,

And every lawless man shall be destroyed.

Who has woe? Who has tumult? Who has condemnation?

Who has unpleasantness and gossip?

Who has afflictions with no purpose?

Whose eyes are pale?

Is it not those who linger long with wines?

Is it not those who hunt for the whereabouts of drinking parties?

Do not be drunk with wine, but keep company with righteous men,

And keep company in public walks;

For if you set your eyes to the bowls and cups,

Afterward you will walk about more naked than ground meat.

And at last, he stretches himself out as one bitten by a serpent,

And the venom spreads through him as one bitten by a horned serpent.

When your eyes behold a strange woman,

Then your mouth will speak twisted things;

And you will lie down as in the heart of the sea

And as a pilot in a great storm;

And you will say, “They beat me, but I did not suffer,

And they mocked me, but I knew it not;

When will it be morning,

That I may go seek those with whom I may company?”