Proverbs 23:20-35 ▼

20 Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

21 For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe them with rags.

22 Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

23 Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and discipline and understanding.

24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.

25 Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

26 Give your heart to me, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.

27 For a harlot is a deep pit And a foreign woman is a narrow well.

28 Surely she lies in wait as a robber, And adds to the treacherous among men.

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

30 Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to search out mixed wine.

31 Do not look on the wine when it glistens red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly;

32 At the end—like a serpent it bites, And like a viper it stings.

33 Your eyes will see strange things And your heart will speak perverse things.

34 And you will be like one who lies down in the heart of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.

35 “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek yet another.”