| 23:1 |
When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you; |
| 23:2 |
And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food. |
| 23:3 |
Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit. |
| 23:4 |
Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money. |
| 23:5 |
Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven. |
| 23:6 |
Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat: |
| 23:7 |
For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you. |
| 23:8 |
The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted. |
| 23:9 |
Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words. |
| 23:10 |
Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father; |
| 23:11 |
For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you. |
| 23:12 |
Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge. |
| 23:13 |
Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him. |
| 23:14 |
Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld. |
| 23:15 |
My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart; |
| 23:16 |
And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things. |
| 23:17 |
Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day; |
| 23:18 |
For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. |
| 23:19 |
Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way. |
| 23:20 |
Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat: |
| 23:21 |
For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed. |
| 23:22 |
Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old. |
| 23:23 |
Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense. |
| 23:24 |
The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him. |
| 23:25 |
Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy. |
| 23:26 |
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways. |
| 23:27 |
For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole. |
| 23:28 |
Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men. |
| 23:29 |
Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark? |
| 23:30 |
Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine. |
| 23:31 |
Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down: |
| 23:32 |
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake. |
| 23:33 |
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things. |
| 23:34 |
Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support. |
| 23:35 |
They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again. |
