{"meta":{"source":"Prime Bible","sourceUrl":"https://primebible.com","license":"Public domain (translation text); see citation policy at /citation-policy","organization":"501(c)(3) nonprofit — EIN 41-2531951","canonicalUrl":"https://primebible.com/drb/proverbs/23","llmTxt":"https://primebible.com/llms.txt","generatedAt":"2026-05-31T01:20:35.151Z"},"reference":{"translation":"DRB","book":"Proverbs","bookSlug":"proverbs","chapter":23,"testament":"OLD"},"navigation":{"previousChapter":22,"nextChapter":24,"totalChapters":31,"totalVerses":35},"verses":[{"verseNumber":1,"text":"When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face. "},{"verseNumber":2,"text":"And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power. "},{"verseNumber":3,"text":"Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit. "},{"verseNumber":4,"text":"Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence. "},{"verseNumber":5,"text":"Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven. "},{"verseNumber":6,"text":"Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats: "},{"verseNumber":7,"text":"Because like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee. "},{"verseNumber":8,"text":"The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words. "},{"verseNumber":9,"text":"Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech. "},{"verseNumber":10,"text":"Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless: "},{"verseNumber":11,"text":"For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee. "},{"verseNumber":12,"text":"Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge. "},{"verseNumber":13,"text":"Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. "},{"verseNumber":14,"text":"Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell. "},{"verseNumber":15,"text":"My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee: "},{"verseNumber":16,"text":"And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right. "},{"verseNumber":17,"text":"Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long: "},{"verseNumber":18,"text":"Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away. "},{"verseNumber":19,"text":"Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way. "},{"verseNumber":20,"text":"Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat: "},{"verseNumber":21,"text":"Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags. "},{"verseNumber":22,"text":"Hearken to thy father, that beget thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old. "},{"verseNumber":23,"text":"Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. "},{"verseNumber":24,"text":"The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him. "},{"verseNumber":25,"text":"Let thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee. "},{"verseNumber":26,"text":"My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways. "},{"verseNumber":27,"text":"For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit. "},{"verseNumber":28,"text":"She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill. "},{"verseNumber":29,"text":"Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? "},{"verseNumber":30,"text":"Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink of their cups. "},{"verseNumber":31,"text":"Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly, "},{"verseNumber":32,"text":"But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk. "},{"verseNumber":33,"text":"Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things. "},{"verseNumber":34,"text":"And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost. "},{"verseNumber":35,"text":"And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake, and find wine again? "}],"citation":{"inline":"Proverbs 23 (DRB)","markdown":"[Proverbs 23](https://primebible.com/drb/proverbs/23)","sbl":"Prime Bible. *The Bible.* DRB. https://primebible.com/drb/proverbs/23 (accessed 2026-05-31)."}}