Proverbs 23:14-35

¹⁴Thou with a rod smitest him, And his soul from Sheol thou deliverest.

¹⁵My son, if thy heart hath been wise, My heart rejoiceth, even mine,

¹⁶And my reins exult when thy lips speak uprightly.

¹⁷Let not thy heart be envious at sinners, But — in the fear of Jehovah all the day.

¹⁸For, is there a posterity? Then thy hope is not cut off.

¹⁹Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And make happy in the way thy heart,

²⁰Be not thou among quaffers of wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh,

²¹For the quaffer and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clotheth with rags.

²²Hearken to thy father, who begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she hath become old.

²³Truth buy, and sell not, Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,

²⁴The father of the righteous rejoiceth greatly, The begetter of the wise rejoiceth in him.

²⁵Rejoice doth thy father and thy mother, Yea, she that bare thee is joyful.

²⁶Give, my son, thy heart to me, And let thine eyes watch my ways.

²⁷For a harlot is a deep ditch, And a strange woman is a strait pit.

²⁸She also, as catching prey, lieth in wait, And the treacherous among men she increaseth.

²⁹Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? who hath plaint? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰Those tarrying by the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.

³¹See not wine when it showeth itself red, When it giveth in the cup its colour, It goeth up and down through the upright.

³²Its latter end — as a serpent it biteth, And as a basilisk it stingeth.

³³Thine eyes see strange women, And thy heart speaketh perverse things.

³⁴And thou hast been as one lying down in the heart of the sea, And as one lying down on the top of a mast.

³⁵'They smote me, I have not been sick, They beat me, I have not known. When I awake — I seek it yet again!'