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Proverbs 23
The teaching that began with "turn your ear" continues here with unusually vivid scenes. You sit at a ruler's table and are told to put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite; you chase wealth and it sprouts wings and flies off like an eagle (v.5). The second half turns to family and self-control — honor your aging mother (v.22), don't envy sinners — and ends with the book's sharpest portrait of drunkenness, the man who cannot feel the beating and asks when he can drink again.
- 1
When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;
- 2
put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.
- 3
Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food.
- 4
Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
- 5
Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- 6
Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies,
- 7
for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
- 8
You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
- 9
Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
- 10
Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
- 11
for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
- 12
Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
- 13
Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
- 14
Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.
- 15
My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.
- 16
Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
- 17
Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear the LORD all day long.
- 18
Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.
- 19
Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
- 20
Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat;
- 21
for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
- 22
Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
- 23
Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
- 24
The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
- 25
Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!
- 26
My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
- 27
For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
- 28
Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.
- 29
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
- 30
Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.
- 31
Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
- 32
In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
- 33
Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.
- 34
Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
- 35
“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”
- 1
CUANDO te sentares á comer con algún señor, considera bien lo que estuviere delante de ti;
- 2
Y pon cuchillo á tu garganta, si tienes gran apetito.
- 3
No codicies sus manjares delicados, porque es pan engañoso.
- 4
No trabajes por ser rico; pon coto á tu prudencia.
- 5
¿Has de poner tus ojos en las riquezas, siendo ningunas? porque hacerse han alas, como alas de águila, y volarán al cielo.
- 6
No comas pan de hombre de mal ojo, ni codicies sus manjares:
- 7
Porque cual es su pensamiento en su alma, tal es él. Come y bebe, te dirá; mas su corazón no está contigo.
- 8
Vomitarás la parte que tú comiste, y perderás tus suaves palabras.
- 9
No hables á oídos del necio; porque menospreciará la prudencia de tus razones.
- 10
No traspases el término antiguo, ni entres en la heredad de los huérfanos:
- 11
Porque el defensor de ellos es el Fuerte, el cual juzgará la causa de ellos contra ti.
- 12
Aplica tu corazón á la enseñanza, y tus oídos á las palabras de sabiduría.
- 13
No rehuses la corrección del muchacho: porque si lo hirieres con vara, no morirá.
- 14
Tú lo herirás con vara, y librarás su alma del infierno.
- 15
Hijo mío, si tu corazón fuere sabio, también á mí se me alegrará el corazón;
- 16
Mis entrañas también se alegrarán, cuando tus labios hablaren cosas rectas.
- 17
No tenga tu corazón envidia de los pecadores, antes persevera en el temor de Jehová todo tiempo:
- 18
Porque ciertamente hay fin, y tu esperanza no será cortada.
- 19
Oye tú, hijo mío, y sé sabio, y endereza tu corazón al camino.
- 20
No estés con los bebedores de vino, ni con los comedores de carne:
- 21
Porque el bebedor y el comilón empobrecerán: y el sueño hará vestir vestidos rotos.
- 22
Oye á tu padre, á aquel que te engendró; y cuando tu madre envejeciere, no la menosprecies.
- 23
Compra la verdad, y no la vendas; la sabiduría, la enseñanza, y la inteligencia.
- 24
Mucho se alegrará el padre del justo: y el que engendró sabio se gozará con él.
- 25
Alégrense tu padre y tu madre, y gócese la que te engendró.
- 26
Dame, hijo mío, tu corazón, y miren tus ojos por mis caminos.
- 27
Porque sima profunda es la ramera, y pozo angosto la extraña.
- 28
También ella, como robador, acecha, y multiplica entre los hombres los prevaricadores.
- 29
¿Para quién será el ay? ¿para quién el ay? ¿para quién las rencillas? ¿para quién las quejas? ¿para quién las heridas en balde? ¿para quién lo amoratado de los ojos?
- 30
Para los que se detienen mucho en el vino, para los que van buscando la mistura.
- 31
No mires al vino cuando rojea, cuando resplandece su color en el vaso: éntrase suavemente;
- 32
Mas al fin como serpiente morderá, y como basilisco dará dolor:
- 33
Tus ojos mirarán las extrañas, y tu corazón hablará perversidades.
- 34
Y serás como el que yace en medio de la mar, ó como el que está en la punta de un mastelero.
- 35
Y dirás : Hiriéronme, mas no me dolió; azotáronme, mas no lo sentí; cuando despertare, aun lo tornaré á buscar.
From the table to the cup
Several warnings circle appetite: the deceptive food of a ruler, the stingy host whose heart "is not with you" (v.7), the danger of staying long at the wine. Verses 29-35 stretch one image to its limit.
That closing passage is almost a poem on its own — the riddle of "who has woe?", the wine that "bites like a snake" (v.32), the seasick stagger of a man clinging to the rigging. It is the consequence the chapter has been building toward.
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