📖 Proverbs 23
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1
When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you,
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2
and put a knife to your throat if you possess a large appetite.
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3
Do not crave that ruler’s delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
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4
Do not wear yourself out to become rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
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5
When you gaze upon riches, they are gone, for they surely make wings for themselves, and fly off into the sky like an eagle!
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6
Do not eat the food of a stingy person, do not crave his delicacies;
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7
for he is like someone who has calculated the cost in his mind.“Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you;
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8
you will vomit up the little bit you have eaten, and will have wasted your pleasant words.
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9
Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
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10
Do not move an ancient boundary stone, or take over the fields of the fatherless,
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11
for their Protector is strong; he will plead their case against you.
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12
Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge.
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13
Do not withhold discipline from a child; even if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
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14
If you strike him with the rod, you will deliver him from death.
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15
My child, if your heart is wise, then my heart also will be glad;
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16
my soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
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17
Do not let your heart envy sinners, but rather be zealous in fearing the LORD all the time.
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18
For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
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19
Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right way.
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20
Do not spend time among drunkards, among those who eat too much meat,
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21
because drunkards and gluttons become impoverished, and drowsiness clothes them with rags.
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22
Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
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23
Acquire truth and do not sell it– wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.
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24
The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; whoever fathers a wise child will have joy in him.
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25
May your father and your mother have joy; may she who bore you rejoice.
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26
Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes observe my ways;
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27
for a prostitute is like a deep pit; a harlot is like a narrow well.
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28
Indeed, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.
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29
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has dullness of the eyes?
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30
Those who linger over wine, those who go looking for mixed wine.
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31
Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
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32
Afterward it bites like a snake, and stings like a viper.
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33
Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will speak perverse things.
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34
And you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging.
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35
You will say,“They have struck me, but I am not harmed! They beat me, but I did not know it! When will I awake? I will look for another drink.”