| Chapter 23 |
1 |
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee: --
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2 |
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [be] a man given to appetite. --
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3 |
Be not desirous of his dainties: for they [are] deceitful meat. --
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4 |
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. --
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5 |
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for [riches] certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. --
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6 |
Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: --
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7 |
For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart [is] not with thee. --
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8 |
The morsel [which] thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. --
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9 |
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. --
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10 |
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: --
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11 |
For their redeemer [is] mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. --
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12 |
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. --
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13 |
Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. --
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14 |
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. --
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15 |
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. --
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16 |
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. --
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17 |
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but [be thou] in the fear of the LORD all the day long. --
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18 |
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. --
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19 |
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. --
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20 |
Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: --
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21 |
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe [a man] with rags. --
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22 |
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. --
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23 |
Buy the truth, and sell [it] not; [also] wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. --
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24 |
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise [child] shall have joy of him. --
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25 |
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. --
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26 |
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. --
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27 |
For a whore [is] a deep ditch; and a strange woman [is] a narrow pit. --
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28 |
She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. --
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29 |
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? --
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30 |
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. --
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31 |
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, [when] it moveth itself aright. --
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32 |
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. --
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33 |
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. --
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34 |
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. --
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35 |
They have stricken me, [shalt thou say, and] I was not sick; they have beaten me, [and] I felt [it] not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. --
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