Proverbs 23 · משלי

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

and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

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

Do not toil to be rich: because thou hast understanding, forbear.

Wilt thou set thy eyes upon it? it is already gone: for riches suddenly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle towards the sky.

Do not eat the bread of him who has an evil eye, nor desire his dainties.

For as one that calculates in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, says he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

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

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

Do not remove the old landmark; and do not enter the fields of the fatherless:

for their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

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

Do not withhold correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he will not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from She᾽ol.

My son, if thy heart is wise, my heart too shall rejoice:

and my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

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

For surely there is a future; and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way.

Be not among winebibbers; among gluttonous eaters of meat:

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

Hearken to thy father who begot thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

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

The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he who begets a wise child shall have joy of him.

Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and let her who bore thee rejoice.

My son, give me thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my ways.

For a harlot is a deep ditch; and an alien woman is a narrow pit.

She also lies in wait like a robber, and increases the transgressors among men.

Who cries, Woe? who cries, Alas? who has quarrels? who has complaints? who has causeless injuries? who has redness of eyes?

They who tarry long at the wine; they who go to seek mixed wine.

Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly:

at the last it bites like a snake, and stings like a viper.

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

Yea, thou shalt be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies upon the top of a mast.

They have struck me, but I was not hurt; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.