Proverbs 23:1-14 ▼

1 When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you (who is before you),

2 and put a knife to your throat if you possess a great appetite.

3 Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.

4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.

5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

6 Do not eat the bread of a stingy man \of him whose eye is evil/, and do not crave his delicacies;

7 for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost (for as he calculates in his soul, so is he). “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

8 You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.

9 Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

11 for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.

12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

14 Strike him with a rod, and you will deliver his soul from Sheol.