Proverbs 23

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Proverbs 23 presents a collection of sayings regarding behavior in various social and personal situations. The text advises caution when dining with a ruler and warns against the pursuit of fleeting wealth and the food of a stingy person. It instructs readers not to speak to fools or move ancient boundary stones, and it emphasizes the importance of discipline for children. Further instructions caution against envying sinners, associating with drunkards and gluttons, and engaging with immoral women. The chapter concludes with a detailed description of the negative consequences and physical effects associated with lingering over wine and excessive drinking.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you, ²and put a knife to your throat if you possess a great appetite. ³Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. ⁴Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself. ⁵When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky. ⁶Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies; ⁷for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ⁸You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. ⁹Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. ¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, ¹¹for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you. ¹²Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. ¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die. ¹⁴Strike him with a rod, and you will deliver his soul from Sheol. ¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will indeed rejoice. ¹⁶My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. ¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD. ¹⁸For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course. ²⁰Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat. ²¹For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags. ²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. ²³Invest in truth and never sell it— in wisdom and instruction and understanding. ²⁴The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him. ²⁵May your father and mother be glad, and may she who gave you birth rejoice! ²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways. ²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well. ²⁸Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men. ²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes? ³⁰Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks. ³¹Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. ³²In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper. ³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities. ³⁴You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast: ³⁵“They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When can I wake up to search for another drink?”

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.