# Proverbs 23 (New King James Version)
Listen to Your Father

##### Chapter 23
###### 1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,  
Consider carefully what _is_ before you;  

###### 2 And put a knife to your throat  
If you _are_ a man given to appetite.  

###### 3 Do not desire his delicacies,  
For they _are_ deceptive food.

###### 4 Do not overwork to be rich;  
Because of your own understanding, cease!  

###### 5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not?  
For _riches_ certainly make themselves wings;  
They fly away like an eagle _toward_ heaven.

###### 6 Do not eat the bread of a miser,  
Nor desire his delicacies;  

###### 7 For as he thinks in his heart, so _is_ he.  
"Eat and drink!" he says to you,  
But his heart is not with you.  

###### 8 The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,  
And waste your pleasant words.

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

###### 10 Do not remove the ancient landmark,  
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;  

###### 11 For their Redeemer _is_ mighty;  
He will plead their cause against you.

###### 12 Apply your heart to instruction,  
And your ears to words of knowledge.

###### 13 Do not withhold correction from a child,  
For _if_ you beat him with a rod, he will not die.  

###### 14 You shall beat him with a rod,  
And deliver his soul from hell.

###### 15 My son, if your heart is wise,  
My heart will rejoice--indeed, I myself;  

###### 16 Yes, my inmost being will rejoice  
When your lips speak right things.

###### 17 Do not let your heart envy sinners,  
But _be zealous_ for the fear of the Lord all the day;  

###### 18 For surely there is a hereafter,  
And your hope will not be cut off.

###### 19 Hear, my son, and be wise;  
And guide your heart in the way.  

###### 20 Do not mix with winebibbers,  
_Or_ with gluttonous eaters of meat;  

###### 21 For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,  
And drowsiness will clothe _a man_ with rags.

###### 22 Listen to your father who begot you,  
And do not despise your mother when she is old.

###### 23 Buy the truth, and do not sell _it,_  
_Also_ wisdom and instruction and understanding.

###### 24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,  
And he who begets a wise _child_ will delight in him.  

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

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

###### 27 For a harlot _is_ a deep pit,  
And a seductress _is_ a narrow well.  

###### 28 She also lies in wait as _for_ a victim,  
And increases the unfaithful among men.

###### 29 Who has woe?  
Who has sorrow?  
Who has contentions?  
Who has complaints?  
Who has wounds without cause?  
Who has redness of eyes?  

###### 30 Those who linger long at the wine,  
Those who go in search of mixed wine.  

###### 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red,  
When it sparkles in the cup,  
_When_ it swirls around smoothly;  

###### 32 At the last it bites like a serpent,  
And stings like a viper.  

###### 33 Your eyes will see strange things,  
And your heart will utter perverse things.  

###### 34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,  
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, _saying:_  

###### 35 "They have struck me, _but_ I was not hurt;  
They have beaten me, but I did not feel _it._  
When shall I awake, that I may seek another _drink?_"