Proverbs 23:1-35
1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
4 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
5 Wilt thou seta thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
10 Remove not the old landmark;b and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
11 For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.
12 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
15 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16 Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
18 For surely there is an end;c and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:d
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
25 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
27 For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingethe like an adder.
33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midstf of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I feltg it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
It is possible to take these three verses together as a warning against treachery lurking in the dainties of a royal table. In that case, in Proverbs 23:1 we should render consider diligently what (mg.) is set before thee, and in Proverbs 23:2 continue, For thou wilt put (mg.). But possibly the general interpretation represented by RV is more suitable, and Proverbs 23:3 has come in by error from Proverbs 23:6, where it more naturally belongs.
Proverbs 23:4 f. The uncertainty of riches. The general sense is clear, but the text is in disorder, as RVm shows.
Proverbs 23:6. Against eating with a grudging host. This was apparently a double quatrain in its original form, but has suffered in transmission like many of the quatrains in this section. The last line is restored from Proverbs 23:3 b. The Heb. of Proverbs 23:7 a is very doubtful and evidently defective. Toy conjectures as he deals with himself (that is, grudgingly), so he deals with thee. Proverbs 23:8 b probably belongs to the next quatrain.
Proverbs 23:9. The uselessness of teaching a fool. Here also the quatrain may be restored by supplying Proverbs 23:4 b for the second line, and Proverbs 23:8 b for the fourth line. It will then run: Speak not in the hearing of a fool, cease from thy wisdom, for he will despise the wisdom of thy sayings, and thou wilt lose thy pleasant words.
Proverbs 23:10 f. Against removing the landmark of the poor. Possibly in Proverbs 23:10 we should read the landmark of the widow.
Proverbs 23:11. redeemer: cf. Ruth 2:20 *, Ruth 4:3 f.; Leviticus 25:25 f. The conception passes over to God (cf. Job 19:25).
Proverbs 23:17 f. A quatrain on the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 23:17 b is defective in Heb., and is unjustifiable. A slight change gives the imperative fear thou Yahweh, etc.
Proverbs 23:18 a also appears to be in disorder. The Heb. words rendered for surely always indicate a strong adversative. Either one word must be dropped, giving for there is an end, or a verb must be inserted with the LXX, but if thou keep her (wisdom) there is, etc. Although Toy does not admit it, end may refer to a future life, since some aphorisms of Pr. may represent the Pharisaic individualistic eschatology, with its hope of a future life in the Messianic kingdom, as well as the purely national eschatology of the earlier type.
Proverbs 23:19. A six-line strophe containing two positive commands to exercise prudence, two prohibitions against drunkenness and gluttony, and two statements of the effects of these vices. drowsiness (Proverbs 23:21 b): the general benumbing of the faculties following on excess.
Proverbs 23:22. A series of exhortations to wisdom and attention to parental advice. This section interrupts the series of aphorisms and seems rather to form an introduction to a collection similar to those introducing the discourses in Proverbs 23:2.
Proverbs 23:27 f. The subject of the harlot is resumed.
Proverbs 23:28 b. Possibly we should read and she multiplies treacheries against men, gaining a better parallelism.
Proverbs 23:29. A short poem of five quatrains depicting vividly the effects of drunkenness.
Proverbs 23:29 a. Lit. Who has Oh! who has Alas!
Proverbs 23:29 c. redness: or dulness (cf. Genesis 49:12 *).
Proverbs 23:30 b. Those who go to test mixed wine (cf. mg.) are connoisseurs.
Proverbs 23:31 c. Lit. it goes straight i.e. probably, it goes down smoothly, as RV. The clause destroys the quatrain, and may have been a marginal note from Ca. Proverbs 7:9.
Proverbs 23:34. upon the top of a mast is a conjecture. LXX as a pilot in a heavy sea may represent the original text.