Proverbs 23 - Arno Geneva Study Bible

When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, (a) consider diligently what [is] before thee:

(a) Eat with sobriety.

(b) And put a knife to thy throat, if thou [art] a man given to appetite.

(b) Bridle your appetite, as if by force and violence.

Be not desirous of his dainties: (c) for they [are] deceitful food.

(c) For often the rich when they bid their inferiors to their tables, it is not for the love they bear them, but for their own secret purposes.

Labour not to be rich: cease from thy own (d) wisdom.

(d) Bestow not the gifts that God has given you, to get worldly riches.

Eat thou not the bread of [him that hath] an (e) evil eye, neither desire thou his delicacies:

(e) That is, covetous, as contrary a good eye is taken for liberal as in (Proverbs 22:9).

The (f) morsel [which] thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

(f) He will not cease till he has done you some harm, and his flattering words will come to no use.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from (g) hell.

(g) That is, from destruction.

For surely there is an end; (h) and thy expectation shall not be cut off.

(h) The prosperity of the wicked will not continue.

Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the (i) way.

(i) In the observation of God's commandments.

Buy (k) the truth, and sell [it] not; [also] wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

(k) Spare no cost for truths sake, neither depart from it for any gain.

My son, give me (l) thy heart, and let thy eyes observe my ways.

(l) Give yourself wholly to wisdom.

She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey, (m) and increaseth the transgressors among men.

(m) She seduces many and causes them to offend God.

They that tarry long at the wine; they that go (n) to seek mixed wine.

(n) Who by art make wine stronger and more pleasant.

Thy (o) eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

(o) That is, drunkenness will bring you to whoredom.

And thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the (p) sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

(p) In such great danger will you be.

They have stricken me, [shalt thou say, and] I was not sick; they have beaten me, [and] I felt [it] not: when shall I awake? I will (q) seek it yet again.

(q) Though drunkenness makes them more insensible then beasts, yet they can not refrain.