Proverbs 23-25

Proverbs 23

¹When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well who is before thee;

²and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

³Be not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful food.

⁴Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:

⁵wilt thou set thine eyes upon it, it is gone; for indeed it maketh itself wings and it flieth away as an eagle towards the heavens.

⁶Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties.

⁷For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he. Eat and drink! will he say unto thee; but his heart is not with thee.

⁸Thy morsel which thou hast eaten must thou vomit up, and thou wilt have wasted thy sweet words.

⁹Speak not in the ears of a foolish man, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹for their redeemer is mighty; he will plead their cause against thee.

¹²Apply thy heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die:

¹⁴thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine;

¹⁶and my reins shall exult, when thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷Let not thy heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day;

¹⁸for surely there is a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹Thou, my son, hear and be wise, and direct thy heart in the way.

²⁰Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh.

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness clotheth with rags.

²²Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and sell it not; wisdom, and instruction, and intelligence.

²⁴The father of a righteous man shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise son shall have joy of him:

²⁵let thy father and thy mother have joy, and let her that bore thee rejoice.

²⁶My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the treacherous among men.

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

³⁰-- They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine.

³¹Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly:

³²at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

³³Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;

³⁴and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast:

³⁵-- ''They have smitten me, and I am not sore; they have beaten me, and I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''

Proverbs 24

¹Be not thou envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them;

²for their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.

³Through wisdom is a house built, and by understanding it is established;

⁴and by knowledge are the chambers filled with all precious and pleasant substance.

⁵A wise man is strong, and a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

⁶For with good advice shalt thou make thy war; and in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool: he will not open his mouth in the gate.

⁸He that deviseth to do evil shall be called a master of intrigues.

⁹The purpose of folly is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to men.

¹⁰If thou losest courage in the day of trouble, thy strength is small.

¹¹Deliver them that are taken forth unto death, and withdraw not from them that stagger to slaughter.

¹²If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, will not he that weigheth the hearts consider it? And he that preserveth thy soul, he knoweth it; and he rendereth to man according to his work.

¹³Eat honey, my son, for it is good; and a honeycomb is sweet to thy taste:

¹⁴so consider wisdom for thy soul; if thou hast found it, there shall be a result, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁵Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; lay not waste his resting-place.

¹⁶For the righteous falleth seven times, and riseth up again; but the wicked stumble into disaster.

¹⁷Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth;

¹⁸lest Jehovah see it, and it be evil in his sight, and he turn away his anger from him.

¹⁹Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, and be not envious of the wicked:

²⁰for there shall be no future to the evil man; the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

²¹My son, fear Jehovah and the king: meddle not with them that are given to change.

²²For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?

²³These things also come from the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.

²⁴He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous, peoples shall curse him, nations shall abhor him;

²⁵but to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing cometh upon them.

²⁶He kisseth the lips who giveth a right answer.

²⁷Prepare thy work without, and put thy field in order, and afterwards build thy house.

²⁸Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and wouldest thou deceive with thy lips?

²⁹Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me, I will render to the man according to his work.

³⁰I went by the field of a sluggard, and by the vineyard of a man void of understanding;

³¹and lo, it was all grown over with thistles, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and its stone wall was broken down.

³²Then I looked, I took it to heart; I saw, I received instruction:

³³-- A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest!

³⁴So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.

Proverbs 25

¹These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah transcribed.

²It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing.

³The heavens for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.

⁴Take away the dross from the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner:

⁵take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.

⁶Put not thyself forward in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of the great;

⁷for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither, than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes see.

⁸Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.

⁹Debate thy cause with thy neighbour, but reveal not the secret of another;

¹⁰lest he that heareth it disgrace thee, and thine evil report turn not away.

¹¹As apples of gold in pictures of silver, is a word spoken in season.

¹²An ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, is a wise reprover upon an attentive ear.

¹³As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.

¹⁴Clouds and wind without rain, so is a man that boasteth himself of a false gift.

¹⁵By long forbearing is a ruler persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.

¹⁶Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be surfeited therewith, and vomit it.

¹⁷Let thy foot be seldom in thy neighbour's house; lest he be weary of thee and hate thee.

¹⁸A maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow, is a man that beareth false witness against his neighbour.

¹⁹A broken tooth, and a tottering foot, is confidence in an unfaithful man in the day of trouble.

²⁰As he that taketh off a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a sad heart.

²¹If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:

²²for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and Jehovah shall reward thee.

²³The north wind bringeth forth rain, and the angry countenance a backbiting tongue.

²⁴It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman, and a house in common.

²⁵As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

²⁶A troubled fountain, and a defiled well, is a righteous man that giveth way before the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat much honey; and to search into weighty matters is itself a weight.

²⁸He that hath no rule over his own spirit is as a city broken down, without walls.