Chapter 23

  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that is before thee;  

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  And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite.  

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  Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food.  

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  Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.  

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  Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For [riches] certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.  

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  Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties:  

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  For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.  

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

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  Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.  

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  Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:  

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  For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee.  

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  Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge.  

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  Withhold not correction from the child; [For] if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.  

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  Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.  

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  My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine:  

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  Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.  

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  Let not thy heart envy sinners; But [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:  

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  For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off.  

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

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  Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:  

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  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe [a man] with rags.  

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  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old.  

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  Buy the truth, and sell it not; [Yea], wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.  

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  The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.  

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  Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice.  

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  My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways.  

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  For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.  

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  Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men.  

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  Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?  

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  They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine.  

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  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly:  

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  At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.  

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  Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things.  

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  Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.  

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  They have stricken me, [shalt thou say], and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.  

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