Proverbs 23:1-30

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.

Proverbs 23:1-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 11

This chapter relates the false steps Solomon took, notwithstanding all his wisdom, in marrying strange wives, and worshipping other gods, 1Ki 11:1-8 upon which the Lord threatens him to rend the kingdom in his son's time, 1Ki 11:9-13 and he raised up adversaries against him, Hadad, Rezon, and Jeroboam, 1Ki 11:14-26 of which last an account is given, and of his being assured by Ahijah the prophet of his having ten of the tribes of Israel given to him; which Solomon having notice of sought to slay him, 1Ki 11:27-40 and the chapter is concluded with an account of Solomon's death and burial, 1Ki 11:41-43.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally one who has an evil eye
• [b]. Or Sheol