Proverbs 23 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Listen to Your Father

Pro 23:1

Pro 23:1When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;

Pro 23:2

Pro 23:2And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.

Pro 23:3

Pro 23:3Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food.

Pro 23:4

Pro 23:4Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease!

Pro 23:5

Pro 23:5Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

Pro 23:6

Pro 23:6Do not eat the bread of a miser,[fn]
Nor desire his delicacies;

Pro 23:7

Pro 23:7For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.

Pro 23:8

Pro 23:8The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up,
And waste your pleasant words.

Pro 23:9

Pro 23:9Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

Pro 23:10

Pro 23:10Do not remove the ancient landmark,
Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;

Pro 23:11

Pro 23:11For their Redeemer is mighty;
He will plead their cause against you.

Pro 23:12

Pro 23:12Apply your heart to instruction,
And your ears to words of knowledge.

Pro 23:13

Pro 23:13Do not withhold correction from a child,
For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

Pro 23:14

Pro 23:14You shall beat him with a rod,
And deliver his soul from hell.[fn]

Pro 23:15

Pro 23:15My son, if your heart is wise,
My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;

Pro 23:16

Pro 23:16Yes, my inmost being will rejoice
When your lips speak right things.

Pro 23:17

Pro 23:17Do not let your heart envy sinners,
But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;

Pro 23:18

Pro 23:18For surely there is a hereafter,
And your hope will not be cut off.

Pro 23:19

Pro 23:19Hear, my son, and be wise;
And guide your heart in the way.

Pro 23:20

Pro 23:20Do not mix with winebibbers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

Pro 23:21

Pro 23:21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

Pro 23:22

Pro 23:22Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.

Pro 23:23

Pro 23:23Buy the truth, and do not sell it,
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.

Pro 23:24

Pro 23:24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.

Pro 23:25

Pro 23:25Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who bore you rejoice.

Pro 23:26

Pro 23:26My son, give me your heart,
And let your eyes observe my ways.

Pro 23:27

Pro 23:27For a harlot is a deep pit,
And a seductress is a narrow well.

Pro 23:28

Pro 23:28She also lies in wait as for a victim,
And increases the unfaithful among men.

Pro 23:29

Pro 23:29Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?

Pro 23:30

Pro 23:30Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of mixed wine.

Pro 23:31

Pro 23:31Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it swirls around smoothly;

Pro 23:32

Pro 23:32At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.

Pro 23:33

Pro 23:33Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.

Pro 23:34

Pro 23:34Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:

Pro 23:35

Pro 23:35“They have struck me, but I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(23:6)

Literally one who has an evil eye

(23:14)

Or Sheol

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