Proverbs 23
Big idea: The words of the wise take up appetite and don't let go, and the chapter's method is to make wanting look like a trap rather than a pleasure — a ruler's table where the food is a test, wealth that grows wings, a host who says eat while counting the cost. Then it closes with the longest single portrait in the book, and the choice to make it a portrait is the argument: the drunkard is not condemned in a line, he is shown at length, from six questions down to a sentence spoken in his own voice while he is still on the floor.
Chapter 23 works through appetite and discipline. Chapter 24 finishes the thirty sayings and adds a short appendix of more sayings of the wise.
23:1–18 — At the ruler's table, and the wealth that flies away
Because this is the words of the wise rather than the anthology, the sayings run together and can be read as a sequence — and it is a sequence about wanting things that are not what they appear. A ruler's banquet is an examination, not hospitality. Riches are given the one property nobody budgets for. A generous host turns out to be doing arithmetic. And the run's answer, at the end, is not to want less but to look further: envy makes sense only if this is the whole story.
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you; 2 put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. 3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food. 4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint. 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 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies, 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 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. 9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. 10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless, 11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you. 12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge. 13 Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die. 14 Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol. 15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine. 16 Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. 17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear Yahweh all day long. 18 Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.
23:19–35 — Buy the truth, and the man on the rigging
The section builds to the book's one extended portrait, and everything before it is preparation. A father asks for the heart rather than the behaviour, knowing which produces which. Truth is priced — bought, and never resold. And then six questions are asked before any answer is given, so the reader diagnoses the symptoms before learning whose they are. The portrait ends inside the man's own mouth, and the last thing he says is that he will look for more.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path! 20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat; 21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags. 22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old. 23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding. 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 bore you rejoice! 26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways. 27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well. 28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men. 29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? 30 Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine. 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, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things. 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 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.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).