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PROVERBS
23.16
- 20Have not I written unto thee excellent things
- Of counsels and knowledge;
- 21That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth,
- That thou mightest bring back words of truth to them that send thee?
- 22Rob not the weak, because he is weak,
- Neither crush the poor in the gate;
- 23For the Lord will plead their cause,
- And despoil of life those that despoil them.
- 24Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger;
- And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go;
- 25Lest thou learn his ways,
- And get a snare to thy soul.
- 26Be thou not of them that strike hands,
- Or of them that are sureties for debts;
- 27If thou hast not wherewith to pay,
- Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
- 28Remove not the ancient landmark,
- Which thy fathers have set.
- 29Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings;
- He shall not stand before mean men.
- 23 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler,
- Consider well him that is before thee;
- 2And put a knife to thy throat,
- If thou be a man given to appetite.
- 3Be not desirous of his dainties;
- Seeing they are deceitful food.
- 4Weary not thyself to be rich;
- Cease from thine own wisdom. 5Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it? it is gone;
- For riches certainly make themselves wings,
- Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.
- 6Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,
- Neither desire thou his dainties;
- 7For as one that hath reckoned within himself, so is he:
- 'Eat and drink', saith he to thee;
- But his heart is not with thee.
- 8The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up,
- And lose thy sweet words.
- 9Speak not in the ears of a fool;
- For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
- 10Remove not the ancient landmark;
- And enter not into the fields of the fatherless;
- 11For their Redeemer is strong;
- He will plead their cause with thee.
- 12Apply thy heart unto instruction,
- And thine ears to the words of knowledge.
- 13Withhold not correction from the child;
- For though thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
- 14Thou beatest him with the rod,
- And wilt deliver his soul from the nether-world.
- 15My son, if thy heart be wise,
- My heart will be glad, even mine;
- 16Yea, my reins will rejoice,
- When thy lips speak right things.
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