Proverbs 23-24

Proverbs 23

¹When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;

²And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.

³Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.

⁴Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.

⁵Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.

⁶Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:

⁷For 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.

⁸The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.

⁹Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;

¹¹For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.

¹²Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.

¹⁴Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld.

¹⁵My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;

¹⁶And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.

¹⁷Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;

¹⁸For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.

²⁰Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:

²¹For 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.

²²Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.

²³Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.

²⁴The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.

²⁷For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.

²⁸Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.

²⁹Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?

³⁰Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.

³¹Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:

³²In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.

³⁴Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.

³⁵They 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.

Proverbs 24

¹Have no envy for evil men, or any desire to be with them:

²For the purposes of their hearts are destruction, and their lips are talking of trouble.

³The building of a house is by wisdom, and by reason it is made strong:

⁴And by knowledge its rooms are full of all dear and pleasing things.

⁵A wise man is strong; and a man of knowledge makes strength greater.

⁶For by wise guiding you will overcome in war: and in a number of wise guides there is salvation.

⁷Wisdom is outside the power of the foolish: he keeps his mouth shut in the public place.

⁸He whose purposes are bad will be named a man of evil designs.

⁹The purpose of the foolish is sin: and the hater of authority is disgusting to others.

¹⁰If you give way in the day of trouble, your strength is small.

¹¹Be the saviour of those who are given up to death, and do not keep back help from those who are slipping to destruction.

¹²If you say, See, we had no knowledge of this: does not the tester of hearts give thought to it? and he who keeps your soul, has he no knowledge of it? and will he not give to every man the reward of his work?

¹³My son, take honey, for it is good; and the flowing honey, which is sweet to your taste:

¹⁴So let your desire be for wisdom: if you have it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not keep a secret watch, O evil-doer, against the fields of the upright man, or send destruction on his resting-place:

¹⁶For an upright man, after falling seven times, will get up again: but trouble is the downfall of the evil.

¹⁷Do not be glad at the fall of your hater, and let not your heart have joy at his downfall:

¹⁸For fear that the Lord may see it, and it may be evil in his eyes, and his wrath may be turned away from him.

¹⁹Do not be troubled because of evil-doers, or have envy of sinners:

²⁰For there will be no future for the evil man; the light of sinners will be put out.

²¹My son, go in fear of the Lord and the king: have nothing to do with those who are in high positions:

²²For their downfall will come suddenly; and who has knowledge of the destruction of those in high positions?

²³These are more sayings of the wise: To have respect for a person's position when judging is not good.

²⁴He who says to the evil-doer, You are upright, will be cursed by peoples and hated by nations.

²⁵But those who say sharp words to him will have delight, and a blessing of good will come on them.

²⁶He gives a kiss with his lips who gives a right answer.

²⁷Put your work in order outside, and make it ready in the field; and after that, see to the building of your house.

²⁸Do not be a violent witness against your neighbour, or let your lips say what is false.

²⁹Say not, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will give the man the reward of his work.

³⁰I went by the field of the hater of work, and by the vine-garden of the man without sense;

³¹And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down.

³²Then looking at it, I gave thought: I saw, and I got teaching from it.

³³A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep:

³⁴So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man.