# Proverbs 23 
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1. When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, 
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2. and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. 
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3. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. 
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4. Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. 
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5. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. 
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6. Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, 
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7. for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. 
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8. You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words. 
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9. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words. 
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10. Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, 
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11. for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you. 
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12. Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. 
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13. Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 
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14. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. 
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15. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad. 
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16. My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right. 
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17. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day. 
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18. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. 
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19. Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. 
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20. Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 
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21. for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. 
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22. Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. 
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23. Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. 
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24. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. 
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25. Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice. 
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26. My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. 
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27. For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well. 
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28. She lies in wait like a robber and increases the traitors among mankind. 
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29. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 
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30. Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. 
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31. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. 
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32. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. 
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33. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things. 
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34. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. 
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35. “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.” 

(ESV)