Proverbs 23:1-23

¹When thou sittest to eat with the prince, perceive thou diligently what things be set before thy face,

²and set thou a coulter in thy throat. If nevertheless thou hast power on thy soul,

³desire thou not of his meats, in whom is the bread of lying.

⁴Do not thou travail to be made rich, but set thou measure to thy prudence.

⁵Raise not thine eyes to riches, which thou mayest not have; for those or they shall make to them-selves pens or wings, as of an eagle, and they shall fly into heaven.

⁶Eat thou not with an envious man, and desire thou not his meats;

⁷for at the likeness of a false diviner, and of a conjecturer, that is, expounder of dreams, he guesseth that, that he knoweth not. He shall say to thee, Eat thou and drink; and his soul is not with thee.

⁸Thou shalt spew out the meat, which thou hast eaten; and thou shalt lose thy fair words.

⁹Speak thou not in the ears of unwise men; for they shall despise the teaching of thy speech.

¹⁰Touch thou not the terms, or the boundary stones, of little children; and enter thou not into the field of fatherless and motherless children.

¹¹For the neighbour of them is strong, and he shall deem their cause against thee.

¹²Thine heart enter to teaching, and thine ears to the words of knowing.

¹³Do not thou withdraw chastising or discipline, from a child; for though thou smitest him with a rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴Thou shalt smite him with a rod, and thou shalt deliver his soul from hell.

¹⁵My son, if thy soul is wise, mine heart shall have joy with thee;

¹⁶and my reins shall make full out joy, when thy lips speak rightful or right things.

¹⁷Thine heart pursue or follow not sinners; but be thou in the dread of the Lord all day.

¹⁸For thou shalt have hope at the last, and thine abiding shall not be done away.

¹⁹My son, hear thou, and be wise, and address thy soul in the way.

²⁰Do not thou be in the feasts of drinkers, neither in the oft eatings of them, that bring together fleshes to eat.

²¹For men giving attention to drinks, and giving morsels together, shall be wasted, and napping shall be clothed with clothes rent.

²²Hear thy father, that begat thee; and despise not thy mother, when she is eld.

²³Buy thou truth, and do not thou sell wisdom, and doctrine, and understanding.