Proverbs 23:20-35 ▼

20 Do not become drunk with wine, || Among gluttonous ones of flesh,

21 For the drunkard and glutton become poor, || And drowsiness clothes with rags.

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

23 Buy truth, and do not sell, || Wisdom, and instruction, and understanding,

24 The father of the righteous rejoices greatly, || The begetter of the wise rejoices in him.

25 Your father and your mother rejoice, || Indeed, she bearing you is joyful.

26 Give, my son, your heart to me, || And let your eyes watch my ways.

27 For a harlot [is] a deep ditch, || And a strange woman [is] a narrow pit.

28 She also, as catching prey, lies in wait, || And she increases the treacherous among men.

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

30 Those lingering by the wine, || Those going in to search out mixed wine.

31 Do not see wine when it shows itself red, || When it gives its color in the cup, || It goes up and down through the upright.

32 Its latter end—it bites as a serpent, || And it stings as a viper.

33 Your eyes see strange women, || And your heart speaks perverse things.

34 And you have been as one lying down in the heart of the sea, || And as one lying down on the top of a mast.

35 “They struck me, I have not been sick, || They beat me, I have not known. When I awake—I seek it yet again!”