Proverbs 23
True Riches
(1 Timothy 6:17–19; James 5:1–6)
Saying 7
¹ When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you,1
² and put a knife to your throat if you possess a great appetite.
³ Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
Saying 8
⁴ Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
⁵ When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
Saying 9
⁶ Do not eat the bread of a stingy man,2 and do not crave his delicacies;
⁷ for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost.3 “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
⁸ You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
Saying 10
⁹ Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Saying 11
¹⁰ Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.
Saying 12
¹² Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Saying 13
¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ Strike him with a rod, and you will deliver his soul from Sheol.
Saying 14
¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will indeed rejoice.
¹⁶ My inmost being 4 will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
Saying 15
¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.
¹⁸ For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Saying 16
¹⁹ Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
²⁰ Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.
²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.
Saying 17
²² Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Invest in truth and never sell it— in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
²⁴ The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him.
²⁵ May your father and mother be glad, and may she who gave you birth rejoice!
Saying 18
²⁶ My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.
²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress 5 is a narrow well.
²⁸ Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.
Saying 19
²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks.
³¹ Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
³² In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
³⁴ You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or 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 up to search for another drink?”