Chapter 23

  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [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: for they [are] deceitful meat.  

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  Labour not 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; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.  

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  Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:  

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  For as he thinketh in his heart, 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 ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.  

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  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:  

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  For their redeemer [is] mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.  

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

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  Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.  

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  Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.  

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  My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.  

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

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  Let not thine heart envy sinners: but [be thou] in the fear of the LORD all the day long.  

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  For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.  

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

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  Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:  

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  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall 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; [also] wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.  

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  The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise [child] shall have joy of him.  

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  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.  

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

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  For a whore [is] a deep ditch; and a strange woman [is] a narrow pit.  

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  She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.  

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  Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? 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 mixed wine.  

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  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, [when] it moveth itself aright.  

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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 women, and thine 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 sick; they have beaten me, [and] I felt [it] not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.  

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