When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,
Consider diligently {Or, what}him that is before thee;
{Or, For thou wilt put}And put a knife to thy throat,
If thou be a man given to appetite.
Be not desirous of his dainties;
Seeing they are deceitful food.
Weary not thyself to be rich;
Cease {Or, by reason of thine own understanding}from thine own wisdom.
{Or, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it? it is gone Hebrew: Shall thine eyes fly upon it, and it is not?}Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings,
Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,
Neither desire thou his dainties:
For {Or, as one that reckoneth}as he thinketh within himself, so is he:
Eat and drink, saith he to thee;
But his heart is not with thee.
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up,
And lose thy sweet words.
Speak not in the hearing of a fool;
For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
Remove not the ancient landmark;
And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
For their Redeemer is strong;
He will plead their cause against thee.
Apply thy heart unto {Or, correction}instruction,
And thine ears to the words of knowledge.
Withhold not correction from the child;
For {Or, though}if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod,
And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.
My son, if thy heart be wise,
My heart will be glad, even mine:
Yea, my {Hebrew: reins.}heart will rejoice,
When thy lips speak right things.
Let not thy heart envy sinners;
But be thou in the fear of Jehovah all the day long:
For surely there is a {Or, sequel Or, future Hebrew: latter end.}reward;
And thy hope shall not be cut off.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise,
And guide thy heart in the way.
Be not among winebibbers,
Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty;
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,
And despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth, and sell it not;
Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.
Let thy father and thy mother be glad,
And let her that bare thee rejoice.
My son, give me thy heart;
And let thine eyes {Another reading is, observe.}delight in my ways.
For a harlot is a deep ditch;
And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.
Yea, she lieth in wait {Or, as for a prey}as a robber,
And increaseth the treacherous among men.
Who hath {Hebrew: Oh!}woe? who hath {Hebrew: Alas!}sorrow? who hath contentions?
Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause?
Who hath {Or, darkness}redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine;
They that go to {Or, try}seek out mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
When it sparkleth in the cup,
When it {Or, moveth itself aright}goeth down smoothly:
At the last it biteth like a serpent,
And stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold {Or, strange women}strange things,
And thy heart shall utter perverse things.
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,
Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, and I felt it not:
When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Querverweise zu Sprüche 23,4 Spr 23,4
A faithful man shall abound with blessings;But he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be unpunished.
Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart,And lean not upon thine own understanding:
Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed.
Seest thou a man wise in {Hebrew: his own eyes.}his own conceit?There is more hope of a fool than of him.
but having food and covering {Or, in these we shall have enough}we shall be therewith content.
But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is a root of all {Or, evils.}kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in;
Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind on high things, but {Greek: be carried away with.}condescend to {Or, them}things that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits.