23:1  When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;

23:2  And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.

23:3  Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food.

23:4  Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease!

23:5  Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

23:6  Do not eat the bread of a miser,
Nor desire his delicacies;

23:7  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
" Eat and drink!" he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.

23:8  The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,
And waste your pleasant words.

23:9  Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

23:10  Do not remove the ancient landmark,
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;

23:11  For their Redeemer is mighty;
He will plead their cause against you.

23:12  Apply your heart to instruction,
And your ears to words of knowledge.

23:13  Do not withhold correction from a child,
For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

23:14  You shall beat him with a rod,
And deliver his soul from hell.

23:15  My son, if your heart is wise,
My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;

23:16  Yes, my inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak right things.

23:17  Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;

23:18  For surely there is a hereafter,
And your hope will not be cut off.

23:19  Hear, my son, and be wise;
And guide your heart in the way.

23:20  Do not mix with winebibbers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

23:22  Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.

23:23  Buy the truth, and do not sell it,
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.

23:24  The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.

23:25  Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who bore you rejoice.

23:26  My son, give me your heart,
And let your eyes observe my ways.

23:27  For a harlot is a deep pit,
And a seductress is a narrow well.

23:28  She also lies in wait as for a victim,
And increases the unfaithful among men.

23:29  Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?

23:30  Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of mixed wine.

23:31  Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it swirls around smoothly;

23:32  At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.

23:33  Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.

23:34  Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:

23:35   "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"