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Proverbs 23 :: New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB20)

On Life and Conduct

Pro 23:1

When you sit down to dine with a ruler,

Consider carefully [fn]what is before you,

Pro 23:2

And put a knife to your throat

If you are a person of great appetite.

Pro 23:3

Do not desire his delicacies,

For it is deceptive food.

Pro 23:4

Do not weary yourself to gain wealth;

[fn]Stop dwelling on it.

Pro 23:5

[fn]When you set your eyes on it, it is gone.

For wealth certainly makes itself wings

Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

Pro 23:6

Do not eat the bread of [fn]a selfish person;

Or desire his delicacies;

Pro 23:7

For as he [fn]thinks within himself, so he is.

He says to you, “Eat and drink!”

But his heart is not with you.

Pro 23:8

You will vomit up [fn]the morsel you have eaten

And waste your [fn]compliments.

Pro 23:9

Do not speak [fn]to be heard by a fool,

For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

Pro 23:10

Do not move the ancient boundary

Or go into the fields of the fatherless,

Pro 23:11

For their Redeemer is strong;

He will plead their case against you.

Pro 23:12

Apply your heart to discipline,

And your ears to words of knowledge.

Pro 23:13

Do not withhold discipline from a child;

Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

Pro 23:14

You shall strike him with the rod

And rescue his soul from Sheol.

Pro 23:15

My son, if your heart is wise,

My own heart also will be glad,

Pro 23:16

And my [fn]innermost being will rejoice

When your lips speak what is right.

Pro 23:17

Do not let your heart envy sinners,

But live in [fn]the fear of the LORD [fn]always.

Pro 23:18

Certainly there is a [fn]future,

And your hope will not be cut off.

Pro 23:19

Listen, my son, and be wise,

And direct your heart in the way.

Pro 23:20

Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine,

Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

Pro 23:21

For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty,

And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.

Pro 23:22

Listen to your father, who fathered you,

And do not despise your mother when she is old.

Pro 23:23

Buy truth, and do not sell it,

Get wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

Pro 23:24

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,

And he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

Pro 23:25

Let your father and your mother be glad,

And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

Pro 23:26

Give me your heart, my son,

And let your eyes [fn]delight in my ways.

Pro 23:27

For a prostitute is a deep pit,

And a [fn]strange woman is a narrow well.

Pro 23:28

Certainly she lurks as a robber,

And increases the treacherous among mankind.

Pro 23:29

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has contentions? Who has complaining?

Who has wounds without cause?

Who has red eyes?

Pro 23:30

Those who linger long over wine,

Those who go to [fn]taste mixed wine.

Pro 23:31

Do not look at wine when it is red,

When it [fn]sparkles in the cup,

When it goes down smoothly;

Pro 23:32

In the end it bites like a snake

And stings like a viper.

Pro 23:33

Your eyes will see strange things

And your [fn]mind will say perverse things.

Pro 23:34

And you will be like one who lies down in the [fn]middle of the sea,

Or like one who lies down on the top of a [fn]mast.

Pro 23:35

“They struck me, but I did not become [fn]ill;

They beat me, but I did not know it.

When will I awake?

I will seek [fn]another drink.”

NASB20 Footnotes
Or who
Lit Refrain from your understanding of it
Lit Will your eyes fly upon it and it is not?
Lit an evil eye
Lit reckons in his soul
Lit your
Lit pleasant words
Lit in the ears of a
Lit kidneys
Or reverence for
Lit all the day
Lit latter end
Another reading is observe
Lit foreign
Or search out
Lit gives its eye
Lit heart
Lit heart
Or lookout
I.e., from the effect of wounds
Lit it yet again
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Proverbs Chapter 23 — Additional Translations: