Proverbs

1When you sit to eat with a ruler,consider diligently what is before you;

2put a knife to your throatif you are a man given to appetite.

3Don’t be desirous of his dainties,since they are deceitful food.

4Don’t weary yourself to be rich.In your wisdom, show restraint.

5Why do you set your eyes on that which is not?For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

6Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye,and don’t crave his delicacies,

7for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

8You will vomit up the morsel which you have eatenand waste your pleasant words.

9Don’t speak in the ears of a fool,for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10Don’t move the ancient boundary stone.Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

11for their Defender is strong.He will plead their case against you.

12Apply your heart to instruction,and your ears to the words of knowledge.

13Don’t withhold correction from a child.If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

14Punish him with the rod,and save his soul from Sheol.

15My son, if your heart is wise,then my heart will be glad, even mine.

16Yes, my heart will rejoicewhen your lips speak what is right.

17Don’t let your heart envy sinners,but rather fear the LORD all day long.

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

19Listen, my son, and be wise,and keep your heart on the right path!

20Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine,or those who gorge themselves on meat;

21for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor;and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

22Listen to your father who gave you life,and don’t despise your mother when she is old.

23Buy the truth, and don’t sell it.Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

24The father of the righteous has great joy.Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

25Let your father and your mother be glad!Let her who bore you rejoice!

26My son, give me your heart;and let your eyes keep in my ways.

27For a prostitute is a deep pit;and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

28Yes, she lies in wait like a robber,and increases the unfaithful among men.

29Who has woe?Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

30Those who stay long at the wine;those who go to seek out mixed wine.

31Don’t look at the wine when it is red,when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

32In the end, it bites like a snake,and poisons like a viper.

33Your eyes will see strange things,and your mind will imagine confusing things.

34Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea,or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

35“They hit me, and I was not hurt!They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”

1When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face.

2And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.

3Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.

4Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.

5Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.

6Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:

7Because like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.

8The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words.

9Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.

10Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:

11For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.

12Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge.

13Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.

14Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.

15My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:

16And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.

17Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:

18Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.

19Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.

20Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:

21Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.

22Hearken to thy father, that beget thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.

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

24The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.

25Let thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.

26My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.

27For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

28She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.

29Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

30Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink of their cups.

31Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,

32But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.

33Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

34And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost.

35And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake, and find wine again?