78 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
78 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 23
|
|
1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
|
|
observe carefully what is before you,
|
|
2 and put a knife to your throat
|
|
if you are given to appetite.
|
|
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
|
|
for they are deceptive food.
|
|
4 Do not toil to acquire wealth;
|
|
be discerning enough to desist.
|
|
5 When your eyes light on it, it is gone,
|
|
for suddenly it sprouts wings,
|
|
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
|
|
6 Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
|
|
do not desire his delicacies,
|
|
7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
|
|
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
|
|
but his heart is not with you.
|
|
8 You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,
|
|
and waste your pleasant words.
|
|
9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
|
|
for he will despise the good sense of your words.
|
|
10 Do not move an ancient landmark
|
|
or enter the fields of the fatherless,
|
|
11 for their Redeemer is strong;
|
|
he will plead their cause against you.
|
|
12 Apply your heart to instruction
|
|
and your ear to words of knowledge.
|
|
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
|
|
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
|
|
14 If you strike him with the rod,
|
|
you will save his soul from Sheol.
|
|
15 My son, if your heart is wise,
|
|
my heart too will be glad.
|
|
16 My inmost being will exult
|
|
when your lips speak what is right.
|
|
17 Let not your heart envy sinners,
|
|
but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
|
|
18 Surely there is a future,
|
|
and your hope will not be cut off.
|
|
19 Hear, my son, and be wise,
|
|
and direct your heart in the way.
|
|
20 Be not among drunkards
|
|
or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
|
|
21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
|
|
and slumber will clothe them with rags.
|
|
22 Listen to your father who gave you life,
|
|
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
|
|
23 Buy truth, and do not sell it;
|
|
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
|
|
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
|
|
he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
|
|
25 Let your father and mother be glad;
|
|
let her who bore you rejoice.
|
|
26 My son, give me your heart,
|
|
and let your eyes observe my ways.
|
|
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;
|
|
an adulteress is a narrow well.
|
|
28 She lies in wait like a robber
|
|
and increases the traitors among mankind.
|
|
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
|
|
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
|
|
Who has wounds without cause?
|
|
Who has redness of eyes?
|
|
30 Those who tarry long over wine;
|
|
those who go to try mixed wine.
|
|
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
|
|
when it sparkles in the cup
|
|
and goes down smoothly.
|
|
32 In the end it bites like a serpent
|
|
and stings like an adder.
|
|
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
|
|
and your heart utter perverse things.
|
|
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 “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 must have another drink.” |