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 23,21 Spr 23,21
He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man:He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.
How long wilt thou {Hebrew: lie down.}sleep, O sluggard?When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,A little folding of the hands to {Hebrew: lie down.}sleep:
So shall thy poverty come as a {Or, rover}robber,And thy want as {Hebrew: a man with a shield.}an armed man.
and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep;And the idle soul shall suffer hunger.
Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of them that are {Hebrew: smitted down.}overcome with wine!
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one; as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest of mighty waters overflowing, will he cast down to the earth {Or, with violence}with the hand.
The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under foot:
I went by the field of the sluggard,And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns,The face thereof was covered with {Or, wild vetches}nettles,And the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Then I beheld, and considered well;I saw, and received instruction:
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,A little folding of the hands to sleep;
So shall thy poverty come as a robber,And thy want as an armed man.
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
but {Or, now I write}as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat.
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I {Or, tell you plainly}forewarn you, even as I did {Or, tell you plainly}forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.