1When you sit down to dine with a ruler,
consider carefully what23:1 Or who is before you,
2and put a knife to your throat
if you have a big23:2 Lit you are the master of an appetite;
for that food is deceptive.
because you know better, stop!
for it makes wings for itself
and flies like an eagle to the sky.
and don’t desire his choice food,23:6 Pr 23:3
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.23:7 Pr 26:24–25
8You will vomit the little you’ve eaten
and waste your pleasant words.
9Don’t speak to23:9 Lit in the ears of a fool,
for he will despise the insight of your words.23:9 Mt 7:6
and don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
and he will champion their cause against you.23:11 Pr 22:22–23
12Apply yourself to discipline
and listen to words of knowledge.
13Don’t withhold discipline from a youth;
14Punish him with a rod,
and you will rescue his life from Sheol.23:14 1Co 5:5
15My son, if your heart is wise,
16My innermost being will celebrate
when your lips say what is right.23:16 Pr 8:6
instead, always fear the Lord.23:17 Pr 28:14
18For then you will have a future,
19Listen, my son, and be wise;
keep your mind on the right course.
or with those who gorge themselves on meat.23:20 Pr 28:7
21For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor,
and grogginess will clothe them in rags.23:21 Pr 6:10–11
22Listen to your father who gave you life,
23Buy — and do not sell — truth,
24The father of a righteous son will rejoice greatly,
and let her who gave birth to you rejoice.
26My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
and a wayward woman is a narrow well;
and increases the number of unfaithful people.
29Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has conflicts? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds for no reason?23:29 Pr 23:35
Who has red eyes?
30Those who linger over wine;
because it gleams in the cup
and goes down smoothly.23:31 Sg 7:9
32In the end it bites like a snake
and stings like a viper.
33Your eyes will see strange things,
and you will say absurd things.23:33 Or will speak perversities, or inverted things23:33 Is 28:7
34You’ll be like someone sleeping out at sea
or lying down on the top of a ship’s mast.
35“They struck me, but23:35 LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg read me,” you will say, “but I feel no pain!
When will I wake up?
I’ll look for another drink.”23:35 Is 56:12
Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard
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