Proverbs 23:1-14 ▼

1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

2 put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite.

3 Do not be desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful food.

4 Do not weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

6 Do not eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and do not crave his delicacies:

7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. |Eat and drink.| he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

8 The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.

9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Do not move the ancient boundary stone. Do not encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

13 Do not withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

14 Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.