Proverbs 23:1-35 NKJV

[1] When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; [2] And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite. [3] Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food. [4] Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease! [5] Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. [6] Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; [7] For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you. [8] The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste your pleasant words. [9] Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words. [10] Do not remove the ancient landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless; [11] For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you. [12] Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge. [13] Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. [14] You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell. [15] My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice-indeed, I myself; [16] Yes, my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things. [17] Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day; [18] For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off. [19] Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way. [20] Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; [21] For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. [22] Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old. [23] Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. [24] The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him. [25] Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who bore you rejoice. [26] My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways. [27] For a harlot is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well. [28] She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men. [29] Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? [30] Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine. [31] Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly; [32] At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper. [33] Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things. [34] Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: [35] "They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"