^23:1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently he who is before you, ^23:2 and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. ^23:3 Do not be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food.

    ^23:4 Do not weary yourself to be rich. Cease out of your own wisdom. ^23:5 Will you set your eyes upon what is not? Because it certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward heaven.

    ^23:6 Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, nor desire his dainties. ^23:7 Because as he thinks within himself, so is he. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ^23:8 The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up and lose your sweet words.

    ^23:9 Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, because he will despise the wisdom of your words.

    ^23:10 Do not remove the ancient landmark. And do not enter into the fields of the fatherless, ^23:11 because their Redeemer is strong. He will plead their cause against you.

    ^23:12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge.

    ^23:13 Do not withhold correction from the child, because if you beat him with the rod, he will not die. ^23:14 You will beat him with the rod and will deliver his soul from Sheol.

    ^23:15 My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will be glad, even mine. ^23:16 Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak in uprightness.

    ^23:17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of Jehovah all the day long. ^23:18 Because surely there is a reward and your hope will not be cut off.

    ^23:19 Hear, my son and be wise and advance your heart in the way.

    ^23:20 Do not be among drunkards, among gluttonous eaters of flesh. ^23:21 Because the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

    ^23:22 Listen to your father who fathered you and do not despise your mother because she is old.

    ^23:23 Buy the truth and do not sell it, yes, wisdom and instruction and understanding.

    ^23:24 The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice and he who begets a wise son will have joy of him. ^23:25 Let your father and your mother be glad and let her who bore you rejoice.

    ^23:26 My son, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways. ^23:27 Because a prostitute is a deep ditch and an strange woman is a narrow well.^23:28 Yes, she lies in wait as a robber and increases the treacherous among men.

    ^23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?^23:30 Those who abide long at the wine. Those who go to seek out mixed wine.

    ^23:31 Do not look upon the wine because it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. ^23:32 At the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

    ^23:33 Your eyes will behold strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. ^23:34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies upon the top of a mast.

    ^23:35 They have stricken me, you will say and I was not hurt. They have beaten me and I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.