Chapter 23

  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;  

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  and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.  

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  Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.  

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  Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:  

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  wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.  

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  Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.  

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  For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.  

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  Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.  

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  Speak not in the ears of a foolish [man], for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.  

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  Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:  

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  for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.  

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  Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.  

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  Withhold not correction from the child; for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:  

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  thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.  

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  My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;  

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  and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.  

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  Let not thy heart envy sinners, but [be thou] in the fear of Jehovah all the day;  

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  for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.  

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  Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.  

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  Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.  

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  For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.  

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  Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.  

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  Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.  

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  The father of a righteous [man] shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise [son] shall have joy of him:  

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  let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.  

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  My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.  

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  For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.  

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  She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.  

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  Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes?  

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  -- They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.  

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  Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:  

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  at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.  

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  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;  

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  and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:  

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  -- ''They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''  

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