Proverbs 23:11-32

¹¹for the Lord is their redeemer; he is mighty, and will plead their cause with you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and prepare your ears for words of discretion.

¹³Refrain not from chastening a child; for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴For you shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death.

¹⁵Son, if your heart be wise, you shall also gladden my heart;

¹⁶and your lips shall converse with my lips, if they be right.

¹⁷Let not your heart envy sinners: but be you in the fear of the Lord all the day.

¹⁸For if you should keep these things, you shall have posterity; and your hope shall not be removed.

¹⁹Hear, my son, and be wise, and rightly direct the thoughts of your heart.

²⁰Be not a wine-bibber, neither continue long at feasts, and purchases of flesh:

²¹for every drunkard and whoremonger shall be poor; and every sluggard shall clothe himself with tatters and ragged garments.

²²Listen, my son, to your father which begot you, and despise not your mother because she is grown old.

²⁴A righteous father brings up his children well; and his soul rejoices over a wise son.

²⁵Let your father and your mother rejoice over you, and let her that bore you be glad.

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a strange house is a vessel full of holes; and a strange well is narrow.

²⁸For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.

²⁹Who has woe? who trouble? who has quarrels? and who vexations and disputes? who has bruises without a cause? whose eyes are livid?

³⁰Are not those of them that stay long at wine? are not those of them that haunt the places where banquets are? Be not drunk with wine; but converse with just men, and converse with them openly.

³¹For if you should set your eyes on bowls and cups, you shall afterwards go more naked than a pestle.

³²But at last such a one stretches himself out as one struck by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent.