The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 When you go out to dinner with an influential person, mind your manners:
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When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you,
2 Don't gobble your food, don't talk with your mouth full.
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and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.
3 And don't stuff yourself; bridle your appetite.
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Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
4 Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; restrain yourself
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Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.
5 Riches disappear in the blink of an eye; wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder.
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When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.
6 Don't accept a meal from a tightwad; don't expect anything special.
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Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,
7 He'll be as stingy with you as he is with himself; he'll say, "Eat! Drink!" but won't mean a word of it.
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for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
8 His miserly serving will turn your stomach when you realize the meal's a sham.
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You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.
9 Don't bother talking sense to fools; they'll only poke fun at your words.
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Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.
10 Don't stealthily move back the boundary lines or cheat orphans out of their property,
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Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless,
11 For they have a powerful Advocate who will go to bat for them.
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for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.
12 Give yourselves to disciplined instruction; open your ears to tested knowledge.
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Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.
13 Don't be afraid to correct your young ones; a spanking won't kill them.
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Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
14 A good spanking, in fact, might save them from something worse than death
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If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.
15 Dear child, if you become wise, I'll be one happy parent.
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My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.
16 My heart will dance and sing to the tuneful truth you'll speak.
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My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.
17 Don't for a minute envy careless rebels; soak yourself in the Fear-of-God -
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Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.
18 That's where your future lies. Then you won't be left with an armload of nothing.
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Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Oh listen, dear child - become wise; point your life in the right direction
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Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.
20 Don't drink too much wine and get drunk; don't eat too much food and get fat.
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Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
21 Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags. Buy Wisdom, Education, Insigh
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for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags
22 Listen with respect to the father who raised you, and when your mother grows old, don't neglect her.
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Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy truth - don't sell it for love or money; buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.
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Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
24 Parents rejoice when their children turn out well; wise children become proud parents.
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The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
25 So make your father happy! Make your mother proud!
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Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.
26 Dear child, I want your full attention; please do what I show you.
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My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 A whore is a bottomless pit; a loose woman can get you in deep trouble fast.
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For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well.
28 She'll take you for all you've got; she's worse than a pack of thieves.
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She lies in wait like a robber and increases the traitors among mankind.
29 Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?
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Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
30 It's those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business.
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Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.
31 Don't judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.
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Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
32 Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with - the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.
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In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
33 Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred,
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Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.
34 Reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor?
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You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.
35 "They hit me," you'll say, "but it didn't hurt; they beat on me, but I didn't feel a thing. When I'm sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!"
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"They struck me," you will say,"but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.