Proverbs · Bible in Basic English
Proverbs 23 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you;
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;
2 And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food.
2 put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.
3 Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit.
3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food.
4 Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
5 Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
6 Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat:
6 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies,
7 For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you.
7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
8 The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted.
8 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
9 Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words.
9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;
10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
11 For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you.
11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
12 Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him.
13 Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld.
14 Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.
15 My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart;
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.
16 And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things.
16 Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
17 Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day;
17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear Yahweh all day long.
18 For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
18 Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
20 Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat:
20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat;
21 For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed.
21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
22 Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old.
22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
23 Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense.
23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
24 The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him.
24 The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!
26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways.
26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
27 For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
28 Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men.
28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.
29 Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark?
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine.
30 Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.
31 Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down:
31 Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
32 In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
32 In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.
34 Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support.
34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
35 They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again.
35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”
Cross references (34)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 43:32–34; Jude 12
- 2 Philippians 3:19; Matthew 18:8–9; 1 Corinthians 9:27
- 3 Proverbs 23:6; Psalm 141:4; Luke 21:34; Ephesians 4:22; Daniel 1:8
- 4 Hebrews 13:5; Proverbs 28:20; 1 Timothy 6:8–10; Matthew 6:19; Proverbs 3:5
- 5 Proverbs 27:24; 1 John 2:16; Matthew 6:19; James 5:1–2; 1 Timothy 6:17
- 6 Psalm 141:4; Proverbs 23:3; Daniel 1:8–10; Deuteronomy 15:9; Matthew 20:15
- 7 Psalm 12:2; Psalm 55:21; Judges 16:15; Matthew 9:3–4; Luke 11:37–54
- 9 Proverbs 9:7–8; Matthew 7:6; Proverbs 26:4–5; Proverbs 1:7; Acts 13:45–46
- 10 Zechariah 7:10; Proverbs 22:28; Jeremiah 22:3; Deuteronomy 27:17; James 1:27
- 11 Proverbs 22:23; Job 19:25; Exodus 22:22–24; Deuteronomy 27:19; Psalm 12:5
- 12 Proverbs 5:1–2; Proverbs 2:2–6; Proverbs 23:19; James 1:21–25; Ezekiel 33:31
- 13 Proverbs 13:24; Proverbs 29:15; Proverbs 19:18; Proverbs 29:17
- 14 1 Corinthians 5:5; Proverbs 22:15; 1 Corinthians 11:32
- 15 Proverbs 23:24–25; 2 John 4; Zephaniah 3:17; 3 John 3–4; Proverbs 29:3
- 16 Proverbs 8:6; Ephesians 5:4; James 3:2; Ephesians 4:29; Colossians 4:4
- 17 Proverbs 28:14; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Proverbs 15:16; 1 Peter 1:17; Ecclesiastes 5:7
- 18 Hebrews 10:35; Jeremiah 29:11; Psalm 9:18; Proverbs 24:14; Philippians 1:20
- 19 Proverbs 23:26; Proverbs 23:12; Proverbs 4:10–23; Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 9:6
- 20 Luke 21:34; Ephesians 5:18; Isaiah 5:22; Romans 13:13; Isaiah 5:11
- 21 Proverbs 21:17; Philippians 3:19; Proverbs 19:15; Deuteronomy 21:20; Galatians 5:21
- 22 Proverbs 30:17; Proverbs 1:8; John 19:26–27; Proverbs 6:20; Ephesians 6:1–2
- 23 Proverbs 18:15; Matthew 13:44; Psalm 119:72; Proverbs 16:16; Isaiah 55:1
- 24 Proverbs 10:1; Proverbs 15:20; Proverbs 23:15–16; Proverbs 29:3; Philemon 20
- 25 Proverbs 17:25; Luke 1:58; Luke 11:27–28; 1 Chronicles 4:9–10; Luke 1:40–47
- 26 Psalm 119:2; Psalm 119:9–11; Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 10:37–38; Proverbs 4:25–27
- 27 Proverbs 22:14
- 28 Ecclesiastes 7:26; Proverbs 7:12; 1 Corinthians 10:8; Hosea 4:11; Proverbs 22:14
- 29 Ephesians 5:18; 1 Samuel 25:36–37; Isaiah 5:11; Isaiah 5:22; 2 Samuel 13:28
- 30 Ephesians 5:18; Isaiah 5:11; Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 9:2; Amos 6:6
- 31 1 John 2:16; Psalm 119:37; 2 Samuel 11:2; Proverbs 6:25; Mark 9:47
- 32 Isaiah 28:7–8; Isaiah 28:3; Luke 16:25–26; Exodus 7:12; Amos 5:19
- 33 Jude 12–13; Proverbs 31:5; Proverbs 2:12; Hosea 7:5; Genesis 19:32–38
- 34 1 Thessalonians 5:2–7; 1 Kings 16:9; Luke 21:34; Luke 17:27–29; Matthew 24:38
- 35 Jeremiah 5:3; Isaiah 56:12; 1 Corinthians 15:32–34; 2 Peter 2:22; Proverbs 26:11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… effect it is written in a certain place, "If thou sittest down to sup at a ruler's table, make wise observation of what is set before thee; and put to thy hand, knowing that it will be thy duty to make similar provision in turn." You know what is meant by the ruler's table: you there find the body and …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
For he who spares his child, ruins it; but he who spares it not, preserves." To which effect also a certain wise man said, "If thou beat thy son with a rod, he shall not die, but thou shalt deliver his soul from death." And again, "He that refresheth his son, shall bind up his wounds." This takes place in …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… the meaning of what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: "If thou sittest down to supper at the table of a ruler, consider wisely what is set before thee; and so put to thy hand, knowing that thou art bound to make similar preparations." For what is the table of the ruler, but that from which we take the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)