The Book of Proverbs

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Chapter 23

1: When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

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

3: Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

4: Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

5: Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

6: Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

7: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

8: The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

9: Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

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

11: For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

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

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

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

15: My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

16: Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

17: Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

18: For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

19: Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

20: Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

21: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

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

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

24: The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

25: Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

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

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

28: She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors amongmen.

29: Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

30: They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

31: Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

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

33: Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

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

35: They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Proverbs 24

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