Sayings of the Wise: Practical Moral Instruction (part 1)
Proverbs 22:17-23:31
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Chapter 22
17Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and set your heart to my knowledge.18For pleasant—for if you keep them in your belly, they will be fitting together on your lips.19I have made known to you today that your trust is to be in the LORD, even you.20Have I not written for you three times in counsel and knowledge?21to make you know the truth of words of faithfulness, to return words of faithfulness truth, to send you22Do not rob the poor because he is poor, and do not crush the oppressed at the gate.23for the LORD will contend for their contention and will shatter their souls.24Do not associate with a master of anger, and do not come with a man of wrath.25lest you learn his ways and take a snare for your nephesh.26Do not be among hand-strikers in the evenings of burden-oracles.27If you have nothing with which to pay, why will he take your bed from under you?28Do not move the ancient boundary that your fathers set.29Have you seen a man swift in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
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Chapter 23
1For when you sit to eat with a ruler, you will consider what is before you.2And you shall put a knife to your throat if you are a master of your nephesh.3Do not desire his delicacies, for it is bread of lies.4Do not labor to make rich from your wisdom; cease.5Will your eyes fly upon it and it is not? For it will make—it will make for itself wings like an eagle; it will fly to the heavens.6Do not eat the bread of an evil eye, and do not desire his delicacies.7For just as he reckons in his nephesh, so he is. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you.8The bread you eat, you will vomit up, and you will waste your pleasant words.9Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise your wisdom.10Do not remove an ancient boundary, and do not enter the fields of orphans.11For their Redeemer is strong; he will contend for their judicial controversy with you.12Apply your heart and your ear to discipline, to the words of knowledge.13Do not withhold discipline from a boy. For if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.14You—with a staff—strike him, and his soul from Sheol you deliver.15My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice—even I.16And my kidneys will rejoice in the words of your lips, upright ones.17Let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the LORD all the day.18For there is an end, and your hope will not be cut off.19Hear, you, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.20Do not be among wine drunkards, flesh gluttons for them.21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty; you will be clothed with rags.22Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother because she grows old.23Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, discipline, and understanding.24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and one who begets a wise one will rejoice in him.25May your father and your mother rejoice, and may she who bore you rejoice.26Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways.27For a deep pit is a prostitute, and a narrow well is a foreign woman.28Indeed, she is like a rapacious predator—she lies in wait, and you add traitors among humanity.29To whom woe? To whom woe? To whom sorrows? To whom strife? To whom wounds for nothing? To whom redness of eyes?30to those who linger over the wine, to those who come to investigate from the bowl.31Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.