Proverbs 23

⁴ Do not weary yourself to gain wealth,
Cease from your ^[b]consideration of it.
^5 [c]When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.
For wealth certainly makes itself wings
Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

⁶ Do not eat the bread of ^[d]a selfish man,
Or desire his delicacies;
⁷ For as he ^[e]thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
⁸ You will vomit up ^[f]the morsel you have eaten,
And waste your ^[g]compliments.

⁹ Do not speak in the ^[h]hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰ Do not move the ancient boundary
Or go into the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ For their Redeemer is strong;
He will plead their case against you.
¹² Apply your heart to discipline
And your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³ Do not hold back discipline from the child,
Although you ^[i]strike him with the rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ You shall ^[j]strike him with the rod
And rescue his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise,
My own heart also will be glad;
¹⁶ And my ^[k]inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But live in the ^[l]fear of the Lord ^[m]always.
¹⁸ Surely there is a ^[n]future,
And your hope will not be cut off.
¹⁹ Listen, my son, and be wise,
And direct your heart in the way.
²⁰ Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
²¹ For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.

²² Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Buy truth, and do not sell it,
Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who sires a wise son will be glad in him.
²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

²⁶ Give me your heart, my son,
And let your eyes ^[o]delight in my ways.
²⁷ For a harlot is a deep pit
And an ^[p]adulterous woman is a narrow well.
²⁸ Surely she lurks as a robber,
And increases the ^[q]faithless among men.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger long over wine,
Those who go to ^[r]taste mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it ^[s]sparkles in the cup,
When it goes down smoothly;
³² At the last it bites like a serpent
And stings like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things
And your ^[t]mind will utter perverse things.
³⁴ And you will be like one who lies down in the ^[u]middle of the sea,
Or like one who lies down on the top of a ^[v]mast.
³⁵ “They struck me, but I did not become ^[w]ill;
They beat me, but I did not know it.
When shall I awake?
I will seek ^[x]another drink.”