Berean Standard Bible

Proverbs 23

(1 Timothy 6:17–19; James 5:1–6)

Saying 7

1When you sit down to dine with a ruler,consider carefully what is set before you,12and put a knife to your throatif you possess a great appetite.

Saying 8

3Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.

4Do not wear yourself out to get rich;be wise enough to restrain yourself.

Saying 9

5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

6Do not eat the bread of a stingy man,2and do not crave his delicacies;7for he is keeping track,inwardly counting the cost.3“Eat and drink,” he says to you,but his heart is not with you.

Saying 10

8You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

Saying 11

9Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10Do not move an ancient boundary stoneor encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

Saying 12

11for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.

Saying 13

12Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

13Do not withhold discipline from a child;although you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

Saying 14

14Strike him with a rod, and you will deliver his soul from Sheol.

15My son, if your heart is wise,my own heart will indeed rejoice.

Saying 15

16My inmost being4 will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.

17Do not let your heart envy sinners,but always continue in the fear of the LORD.

Saying 16

18For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

19Listen, my son, and be wise,and guide your heart on the right course.20Do not join those who drink too much wineor gorge themselves on meat.

Saying 17

21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.

22Listen to your father who gave you life,and do not despise your mother when she is old.23Invest in truth and never sell it—in wisdom and instruction and understanding.24The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice,and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him.

Saying 18

25May your father and mother be glad, and may she who gave you birth rejoice!

26My son, give me your heart,and let your eyes delight in my ways.27For a prostitute is a deep pit,and an adulteress5 is a narrow well.

Saying 19

28Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

29Who has woe? Who has sorrow?Who has contentions? Who has complaints?Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?30Those who linger over wine,who go to taste mixed drinks.31Do not gaze at wine while it is red,when it sparkles in the cupand goes down smoothly.32In the end it bites like a snakeand stings like a viper.33Your eyes will see strange things,and your mind will utter perversities.34You will be like one sleeping on the high seasor lying on the top of a mast:35“They struck me, but I feel no pain!They beat me, but I did not know it!When can I wake upto search for another drink?”

Notes

1. Proverbs 23:1 Or who is before you ↩
2. Proverbs 23:6 Literally of him whose eye is evil ↩
3. Proverbs 23:7 Or for as he calculates in his soul, so is he ↩
4. Proverbs 23:16 Hebrew My kidneys ↩
5. Proverbs 23:27 Or a foreign woman or a wayward wife ↩