Proverbs
Chapter 23
If you sit at a table with a great man, beware of what is before you;
if your appetite is too strong, put a knife to your throat.
Do not greedily crave his fine food, for it is false nourishment.
Don’t exhaust yourself trying to get rich, and avoid dwelling on it.
Focus on wealth, and it disappears; it sprouts wings and soars into the sky like an eagle.
Do not eat with the wicked man or desire his choice food.
Everything is just appearances, for he secretly schemes in his heart. “Eat and drink,” he says, but he cannot be trusted.
You will spit it out immediately after tasting it, and your words of praise will be in vain.
Avoid talking to a fool; he won’t understand or value your comments.
Do not move the ancient boundaries or claim the orphan’s land because their redeemer is powerful;
he will take sides against you.
Apply your heart to instruction and pay attention to words of wisdom.
Don’t hesitate to correct a young person; the rod won’t kill him.
With a few strokes, you save him from death.
My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will also be glad,
and my entire being will rejoice when you speak the truth.
Do not envy sinners but, each day, fear the Lord; then you will have a future
and your hope will not be in vain.
Listen, my son, and you will gain wisdom and keep your heart on the right path.
Don’t be one of those who become drunk on wine or who overindulge in meat,
since the drunkard and the glutton impoverish themselves, and the sleepyhead is dressed in rags.
Listen to your father who gave you life; don’t despise your mother in her old age.
Hold onto truth and never sell it; seek wisdom, discipline, and discernment.
Happy the father of a virtuous man! How he will rejoice,
he who fathers a wise man! May your father and mother rejoice, and may she who bore you be glad.
My son, give me your heart so that your eyes may take joy in my ways.
You should understand that a prostitute is like a bottomless abyss, and an unknown woman is a narrow well.
Like a thief, she waits in ambush and adds to the sinners among men.
Who are the cries and laments for? Who are the complaints and sighs for? Who are the blows without reason for? Who are the eyes that see double for?
… for those who give themselves over to wine and seek out well-blended wine.
Don’t focus on the wine: how red it is and how sparkling the glass! How smoothly it flows!
Ultimately, it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
Your eyes will witness strange sights, and you’ll end up talking nonsensically.
You will be like a man asleep on the high seas or at the rudder: “They hit me, but I am not hurt.
They hurt me, but I feel nothing. When will I wake up? I will go looking for more.”
Commentaries
Third and Fourth Collections.
The teacher of wisdom states that he will share a wealth of knowledge through thirty sayings, based on his experiences and direct observations of life and human behavior. There could be more or fewer than thirty; the key point is that this collection encompasses a variety of sayings that address numerous themes in human life. Neither this section nor any other in wisdom literature is a treatise on the systematic study of knowledge or a theory of how we know things; instead, it is an ancient method of educating children and young people in general, where simple “secrets” are shared to explain certain aspects of the human soul or to warn against specific wrong behaviors.
The observer recognizes that life must have a particular order and harmony, and that everything should be approached with common sense and prudence. While discovering the benefits of living an orderly life, one also sees the drawbacks of merely following instincts or being misled by other models of behavior that lead nowhere good. The father or elders of the community share this knowledge, gained from experience, with the younger generation; they correct and earnestly request that such correction be accepted willingly, because only those who love correction do so, and only those who feel loved recognize that correction is a good thing, a sign of support and even solidarity. This effort is also carried out by the wise men, who elevated the wisdom of the people to the highest levels of the court, making it a possession mostly exclusive to the aristocracy and those who can afford to pay for a good teacher. In this way, the role of wisdom in God’s plan was distorted, and the primary focus of justice was called into question.