Proverbs 23

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Proverbs 23 offers counsel on self-control and wisdom in various life situations. It warns against gluttony, the pursuit of fleeting riches, and the dangers of associating with insincere individuals and fools. The chapter emphasizes the importance of parental discipline, honoring one's parents, and diligently seeking truth and understanding, while strongly cautioning against the destructive paths of drunkenness and immorality.

Prudence When Dining with Rulers 1–3

When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him that is before thee;

And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite.

Be not desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food.

The Folly of Chasing Riches 4–5

Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.

Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? Forrichescertainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven.

The Stingy Host and the Fool's Ear 6–9

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainties:

For as he thinketh within himself, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.

The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.

Speak not in the hearing of a fool; For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

Respect Boundaries and the Poor 10–11

Remove not the ancient landmark; And enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against thee.

Commitment to Instruction 12–16

Apply thy heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Withhold not correction from the child; Forif thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.

My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart will be glad, even mine:

Yea, my heart will rejoice, When thy lips speak right things.

Do Not Envy Sinners 17–18

Let not thy heart envy sinners; Butbe thouin the fear of Jehovah all the day long:

For surely there is a reward; And thy hope shall not be cut off.

Avoid Drunkenness and Gluttony 19–25

Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thy heart in the way.

Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:

For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothea manwith rags.

Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old.

Buy the truth, and sell it not; Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; And he that begetteth a wise child will have joy of him.

Let thy father and thy mother be glad, And let her that bare thee rejoice.

The Danger of Sexual Immorality 26–28

My son, give me thy heart; And let thine eyes delight in my ways.

For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.

Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, And increaseth the treacherous among men.

The Catalogue of Drunken Misery 29–35

Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?

They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it sparkleth in the cup, When it goeth down smoothly:

At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.

Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things.

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.

They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt; They have beaten me, and I felt it not: When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Proverbs 23

Verse 1

consider diligently — The verb bin, to discern, is doubled in the Hebrew, the verb of 'looketh well to his going' (14:15). 'Ruler' is moshel, one who holds dominion. The warning concerns what is on the ruler's table, and vv.2–3 name the danger. Daniel 'purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat' (Dan 1:8).

Verse 2

put a knife to thy throat — Lo'a, throat, occurs only here. 'A man given to appetite' is literally 'a lord of appetite' (baal nephesh). Paul writes of those 'whose God is their belly' (Phil 3:19) and of his own practice, 'I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection' (1 Cor 9:27).

Verse 3

deceitful meat — Literally 'bread of lies', kazab, the word for 'lies' in 19:5 and 19:9. 'Dainties' is matam, delicacies, while 'let me not eat of their dainties' (Ps 141:4) uses a different word, manam. Matam returns in v.6 for the table of the man with the evil eye.

Verse 4

Labour not to be rich — Yaga is to toil until worn out. 'Cease' is chadal, as in 19:27. 'Thine own wisdom' is binah, understanding, the word of 'lean not unto thine own understanding' (Prov 3:5). Prov 28:20 says 'he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent', and Paul that 'they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare' (1 Tim 6:9).

Verse 5

riches certainly make themselves wings — The verb behind 'set' is uf, to fly, the same as 'fly away': the eyes fly at the riches and the riches fly off. 'Eagle' is nesher. Prov 27:24 gives the reason: 'riches are not for ever'. Christ's counsel is 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt' (Matt 6:19).

Verse 6

an evil eye — Literally 'one evil of eye'. The law uses the figure of the stingy giver: 'thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought' (Deut 15:9). Christ's householder asks, 'Is thine eye evil, because I am good?' (Matt 20:15). 'Dainty meats' is matam, as in v.3.

Verse 7

as he thinketh in his heart — 'Heart' here is nephesh, soul. The verb shaar, rendered 'thinketh', occurs only here. The host says 'Eat and drink', and 'his heart' (lev) is not with the guest. The Psalms name such speech: 'with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak' (Ps 12:2).

Verse 8

vomit up — Qo, to vomit, is the verb of the land that 'vomiteth out her inhabitants' (Lev 18:25). The guest loses the food and his 'sweet words' (naim, pleasant), the pleasant things he said to his host; 'lose' is shachath, to ruin.

Verse 9

Speak not in the ears of a fool — 'Despise' is buz, as in 14:21. The wisdom (sekel, insight) of the words is what he treats as nothing. Prov 9:7 gives the cost to the speaker: 'He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame'. Christ says, 'neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet' (Matt 7:6).

Verse 10

old landmark — The first line repeats 22:28, with the same olam for 'old' and 'ancient'. The new clause names the targets: 'the fields of the fatherless' (yatom). The law ran the same way: 'Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow' (Deut 27:19); 'oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless' (Zech 7:10).

Verse 11

their redeemer is mighty — Goel is the kinsman who buys back, as in 'any of his kin come to redeem it' (Lev 25:25), and here he acts for the fatherless. Jeremiah says the same of Israel: 'Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause' (Jer 50:34). 'Plead their cause' is the phrase of 22:23.

Verse 12

Apply thine heart unto instruction — 'Apply' is bo, to bring: bring the heart to musar, the word translated 'correction' in v.13. The ears go to 'the words of knowledge', the phrase of 19:27. The same pairing of heart and ear opens the collection in 22:17.

Verse 13

Withhold not correction — Musar, 'correction', is the 'instruction' of v.12, so the rod belongs to the same teaching. Naar is a boy, and 'the rod' is shebet. 'Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him' (Prov 22:15), and 'he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes' (Prov 13:24).

Verse 14

deliver his soul from hell — The 'hell' is Sheol, the place of the dead. 'Deliver' is natsal, to snatch away, the verb of 'thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell' (Ps 86:13). The line answers v.13, 'he shall not die': correction keeps him from the way that ends there, as 19:18 says of the son 'while there is hope'.

Verse 17

envy sinners — Qana, to be zealous or jealous, is the verb of 'Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked' (Prov 24:19). The psalmist confesses it: 'I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked' (Ps 73:3). The remedy given here is the fear of the LORD 'all the day long'.

Verse 18

thine expectation shall not be cut off — 'Expectation' is tiqvah, hope, the word of 19:18. 'End' is achariyt, the future. Prov 24:14 has the same promise: 'there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off'. The psalmist saw the end of the wicked in the sanctuary: 'then understood I their end' (Ps 73:17).

Verse 20

winebibbers — 'Winebibbers' is sove yayin, and 'riotous eaters' zolelei, the two words in the parents' charge against a rebellious son: 'he is a glutton, and a drunkard' (Deut 21:20). Paul gives the Spirit as the alternative: 'be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit' (Eph 5:18).

Verse 21

drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags — 'Drowsiness' (nummah) is found only here. 'Come to poverty' is the phrase of 'Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty' (Prov 20:13), and the sluggard's 'little sleep' brings 'thy poverty… as one that travelleth' (Prov 6:10–11). The drunkard and the glutton are brought to the sleeper's end.

Verse 22

despise not thy mother when she is old — 'Despise' is buz, as in v.9. 'Old' (zaqen) is the verb of 'when he is old' in 22:6, so the son who is told to hearken is also told not to despise a mother who has grown old. 'Honour thy father and mother' is called 'the first commandment with promise' (Eph 6:2).

Verse 23

Buy the truth — Qanah, to get or buy, is the verb of 'get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding' (Prov 4:7). Christ's parable has the same exchange: the man who finds treasure 'selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field' (Matt 13:44). The four things bought, truth, wisdom, instruction (musar) and understanding (binah), are never to be sold.

Verse 26

give me thine heart — 'Observe' is natsar, to guard, the verb of 'Keep thy heart with all diligence' (Prov 4:23). The heart is asked for first, as in 'thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart' (Deut 6:5), and the eyes come second, to 'observe my ways'.

Verse 27

a whore is a deep ditch — The 'ditch' is the shuchah of 22:14, where the strange woman is 'a deep pit'. 'Strange woman' here is nokriyah, an alien or foreign woman, where 22:14 has zarot. Of such a woman Prov 7:26–27 says 'many strong men have been slain by her' and 'Her house is the way to hell'.

Verse 29

Who hath woe? — Six questions open the passage. 'Woe' is oy, the cry of 'Woe is me!' (Isa 6:5), and 'sorrow' (abou) is found only here. 'Babbling' is siach, a complaint, as in 'I poured out my complaint before him' (Ps 142:2). The answer waits for v.30.

Verse 30

mixed wine — Mamsak occurs only here and in Isa 65:11, where it is the 'drink offering' of those who 'forsake the LORD'. 'Tarry long' is the verb of 'continue until night, till wine inflame them' (Isa 5:11). The answer to v.29 is these men, who 'go to seek' (chaqar, to search out) the mixed wine.

Verse 31

Look not thou upon the wine — 'Colour' is literally 'eye' (ayin): the wine 'giveth his eye' in the cup. 'Aright' is mesharim, the word of 'right things' (23:16) and of wine that 'goeth down sweetly' (Song 7:9). The eye is where the warning starts, as in 'Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity' (Ps 119:37).

Verse 32

At the last it biteth like a serpent — 'At the last' is achariyt, the end that 14:12–13 also names for the way that 'seemeth right' and for mirth. 'Serpent' is nachash, and 'biteth' is nashak, as in 'the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people' (Num 21:6).

Verse 33

Thine eyes shall behold strange women — The eyes told not to 'look' (raah, v.31) now 'behold' (raah). 'Strange women' is zarot, as in 22:14. 'Perverse things' is tahpukot, the word of 'the froward mouth, do I hate' (Prov 8:13), what 'thine heart shall utter'.

Verse 34

in the midst of the sea — Literally 'in the heart of the sea', as 'the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea' (Ex 15:8). 'Mast' is chibbel, found only here, and the second figure puts the sleeper at its 'top' (literally 'head').

Verse 35

I will seek it yet again — 'I felt it not' is literally 'I knew it not' (yada). The last clause has baqash, to seek, and yasaph, to add: 'I will seek it yet again'. It answers the opening questions of v.29, 'wounds without cause', with the same drink; 'As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly' (Prov 26:11).