Proverbs 23 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

On Life and Conduct

1When you sit down to dine with a ruler,

Consider carefully what is before you;

2For you will put a knife to your throat

If you are a man of great appetite.

3Do not desire his delicacies,

For it is deceptive food.

4¶Do not weary yourself to gain wealth;

Cease from your own understanding of it.

5When you set your eyes on wealth, it is gone.

For wealth certainly makes itself wings

Like an eagle that flies to the heavens.

6¶Do not eat the bread of a selfish man,

Or desire his delicacies;

7For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

He says to you, “Eat and drink,”

Yet his heart is not with you.

8The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up,

And you will waste your compliments.

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 landmark

And do not go into the fields of the fatherless,

11For their Redeemer is strong and mighty;

He will plead their case against you.

12Apply your heart to discipline

And your ears to words of knowledge.

13¶Do not withhold discipline from the child;

If you swat him with a reed-like rod, he will not die.

14You shall swat him with the reed-like rod

And rescue his life from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead).

15¶My son, if your heart is wise,

My heart will also be glad;

16Yes, my heart will rejoice

When your lips speak right things.

17¶Do not let your heart envy sinners,

But live in the fear of the Lord day by day.

18Surely there is a future,

And your hope and expectation will not be cut off.

19Listen, my son, and be wise,

And direct your heart in the way.

20Do not associate with heavy drinkers of wine,

Or with gluttonous eaters of meat,

21For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty,

And the drowsiness will clothe one with rags.

22¶Listen to your father, who sired you,

And do not despise your mother when she is old.

23 Buy truth, and do not sell it;

Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

24¶The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,

And he who sires a wise child will have joy in him.

25Let your father and your mother be glad,

And let her who gave birth to you rejoice.

26¶My son, give me your heart

And let your eyes delight in my ways,

27For a prostitute is a deep pit,

And an immoral woman is a narrow well.

28She lurks and lies in wait like a robber,

And she increases the faithless among men.

29¶Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaining?

Who has wounds without cause?

Whose eyes are red and dim?

30Those who linger long over wine,

Those who go to taste mixed wine.

31Do not look at wine when it is red,

When it sparkles in the glass,

When it goes down smoothly.

32At the last it bites like a serpent

And stings like a viper.

33Your eyes will see strange things

And your mind will utter perverse things.

34And you will be as one who lies down in the middle of the sea,

And as one who lies down on the top of a ship’s mast, saying,

35“They struck me, but I was not hurt!

They beat me, but I did not feel it!

When will I wake up?

I will seek more wine.”