Proverbs 23 is the 23rd chapter of the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.[1] The book is a compilation of several wisdom literature collections, with the heading in 1:1 may be intended to regard Solomon as the traditional author of the whole book, but the dates of the individual collections are difficult to determine, and the book probably obtained its final shape in the post-exilic period. This chapter specifically records "the sayings of wise".
The following table shows the Hebrew text[2] [3] of Proverbs 23 with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).
| Verse | Hebrew | English translation (JPS 1917) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider well him that is before thee; | ||
| 2 | And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. | ||
| 3 | Be not desirous of his dainties; seeing they are deceitful food. | ||
| 4 | Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom. . | ||
| 5 | Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it? it is gone; For riches certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven. | ||
| 6 | Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties; | ||
| 7 | For as one that hath reckoned within himself, so is he: ‘Eat and drink’, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee. | ||
| 8 | The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words. | ||
| 9 | Speak not in the ears of a fool; for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. | ||
| 10 | Remove not the ancient landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless; | ||
| 11 | For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause with thee. | ||
| 12 | Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge. | ||
| 13 | Withhold not correction from the child; For though thou beat him with the rod, he will not die. | ||
| 14 | Thou beatest him with the rod, And wilt deliver his soul from the nether-world. | ||
| 15 | My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine; | ||
| 16 | Yea, my reins will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things. | ||
| 17 | Let not thy heart envy sinners, But be in the fear of the LORD all the day; | ||
| 18 | For surely there is a future; And thy hope shall not be cut off. | ||
| 19 | Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way. | ||
| 20 | Be not among winebibbers; Among gluttonous eaters of flesh; | ||
| 21 | For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. | ||
| 22 | Hearken unto thy father that begot thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old. | ||
| 23 | Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. | ||
| 24 | The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; and he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him. | ||
| 25 | Let thy father and thy mother be glad, and let her that bore thee rejoice. | ||
| 26 | My son, give me thy heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. . | ||
| 27 | For a harlot is a deep ditch; and an alien woman is a narrow pit. | ||
| 28 | She also lieth in wait as a robber, and increaseth the faithless among men. | ||
| 29 | Who crieth: ‘Woe’? who: ‘Alas’? Who hath contentions? who hath raving? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? | ||
| 30 | They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to try mixed wine. | ||
| 31 | Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, When it glideth down smoothly; | ||
| 32 | At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like a basilisk. | ||
| 33 | Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter confused things. | ||
| 34 | 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. | ||
| 35 | ’They have struck me, and I felt it not, they have beaten me, and I knew it not; when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.’ |
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BC. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B;
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This chapter is a part of the third collection in the book of Proverbs (comprising Proverbs 22:17–24:22), which consists of seven instructions of various lengths:
The sayings are predominantly in the form of synonymous parallelism, preceded by a general superscription of the entire collection in 22:17a: "The words of the wise" (or "Sayings of the Wise"). This collection consists of an introduction that the youths should be instructed and exhorted to listen to and obey their "teachers" (parents), followed by a series of admonitions and prohibitions coupled with a variety of clauses, primarily presented in short parental instructions (cf. 23:15, 22; 24:13, 21).
The 'thirty sayings' (Proverbs 22:20) in this collection are thought to be modelled on the 'thirty chapters' in Egyptian Instruction of Amen-em-ope the son of Kanakht (most likely during the Ramesside Period ca. 1300–1075 BCE), although the parallels extend only in Proverbs 22:17–23:11 and the extent of the dependence is debatable.[4] [5]
This section forms the body of a collection titled "Sayings of the Wise" (22:17), containing 5 of 7 sets of instruction. Verses 1–3 give some further advice about table manners during a royal feast, that is, to 'put a knife to your throat' (a forceful expression for 'curb your appetite') in front of 'deceptive food' (literally, "bread of lies") because there could be an ulterior motive behind the abundant hospitality that can cause one's undoing. Verses 4-5 warn against accruing wealth as the main goal in life because riches are like a mirage: no sooner here than gone. Verses 10–11 warn against land appropriation of the defenseless people through the removal of the boundary stones (cf. 15:25; 22:28), because although there is no human 'kinsman' to defend their rights (cf. Leviticus 25:25; Ruth 4), God himself will become their redeemer (cf. 22:23). Verses 13–14 affirm the value of disciplining of children (cf. 13:24; 20:30; 22:15), as this will save them from following the paths leading to death and direct them along the path of life (cf. 13:14; 15:24). Verses 19–21 advise to avoid the company of drunkards and gluttons as excessive eating and drinking would lead to indiscipline, inertia and ultimately to poverty.
Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,[6]
Selfish people are always worrying
about how much the food costs.They tell you, “Eat and drink,”
but they don’t really mean it.[8]
A reminder to take heed of the advice from one's father and mother precedes the warning against the seductress (verses 26–28), who is likened to a deep and narrow 'pit' (cf. Jeremiah 38:6–13; probably representing the gateway to Sheol, cf. 2:18–19; 5:5, 27; 22:14), or to a huntress who traps (cf. 7:22–23) and to a robber who lies in wait for her victims (cf. 7:12). Verses 29–35 describe the seduction of a drunkard by the power of wine which 'eye' ('sparkles' in verse 31 is literally 'gives its eye') and 'smoothness' (cf. Song of Songs 7:9) are comparable to the words of the seductress in chapters 1–9 (cf. 6:24–25). In both cases the promise of pleasure and enjoyment ('at the last', verse 32; 'in the end', 5:4) will lead to degenerative effects—both physical and mental—on its victims (verses 29, 33–35).
Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it swirls around smoothly;[9]
For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;
it stings like a viper.[11]
. Michael D. Coogan . The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 . Coogan . Michael David . Marc Zvi . Brettler . Carol Ann . Newsom . Pheme . Perkins . Augmented 3rd . Oxford University Press . 2007 . 9780195288810 .
. Michael V. Fox . Proverbs 10-31: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary . Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries . Yale University Press . 2009 . 978-0300155563.
. Henry Hampton Halley. Halley's Bible Handbook: an abbreviated Bible commentary . 24th (revised). Zondervan Publishing House . 1965 . 0-310-25720-4.