Proverbs · 35 verses
Proverbs 23
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A drinker can be beaten without feeling it, forget the beating, and still ask when another drink is coming.
At the ruler’s table and beyond itvv. 1–14
A ruler’s dinner begins with caution: the appetite grows, and suddenly a knife is required at the throat. Wealth is no safer, since it makes wings and vanishes. The stingy man says, “Eat and drink,” while inwardly counting the cost, and the meal ends in vomiting and wasted pleasantries. The fool despises wisdom, but the Redeemer takes up the case of the fatherless. Instruction, knowledge, and discipline close this first movement with an unusually grim rod.
The son, the parents, and the narrow wellvv. 15–28
The address turns warmly toward the son: wisdom in his heart and right words on his lips make the father rejoice. Envy of sinners gives way to a future and an uncut hope, while wine, meat, poverty, and rags gather on the other side. Father and mother are to be heard and honoured; truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding are to be bought and never sold. Then the invitation to give the heart is followed by two perilous figures: a prostitute as a deep pit and an adulteress as a narrow well, waiting like a robber and multiplying the faithless.
The high seas of winevv. 29–35
The last movement is a catalogue of woe, sorrow, quarrels, complaints, needless wounds, and bloodshot eyes. It belongs to those who linger over wine and taste mixed drinks. Wine sparkles, descends smoothly, and then bites like a snake; the drinker sees strange things and speaks perversities, as though asleep on the high seas or on a mast. The final speech is magnificently unhelpful: the beating is forgotten, the pain is absent, and another drink is already under consideration.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Prov 23:1When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you,
Prov 23:2and put a knife to your throat if you possess a great appetite.
Prov 23:3Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
Prov 23:4Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
Prov 23:5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
Prov 23:6Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies;
Prov 23:7for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
Prov 23:8You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
Prov 23:9Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Prov 23:10Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
Prov 23:11for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.
Prov 23:12Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
Prov 23:13Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
Prov 23:14Strike him with a rod, and you will deliver his soul from Sheol.
Prov 23:15My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will indeed rejoice.
Prov 23:16My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
Prov 23:17Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.
Prov 23:18For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Prov 23:19Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
Prov 23:20Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.
Prov 23:21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.
Prov 23:22Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Prov 23:23Invest in truth and never sell it—in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Prov 23:24The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him.
Prov 23:25May your father and mother be glad, and may she who gave you birth rejoice!
Prov 23:26My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways.
Prov 23:27For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
Prov 23:28Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.
Prov 23:29Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?
Prov 23:30Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks.
Prov 23:31Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
Prov 23:32In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
Prov 23:33Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
Prov 23:34You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:
Prov 23:35“They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When can I wake up to search for another drink?”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 317 passages were voted onto 34 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 7Psalms 12:2They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
- 18Hebrews 10:35So do not throw away your confidence; it holds a great reward.
- 18Jeremiah 29:11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
- 7Psalms 55:21His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
- 18Psalms 9:18For the needy will not always be forgotten; nor the hope of the oppressed forever dashed.
- 4Hebrews 13:5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- 7Judges 16:15“How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”
- 7Matthew 9:3–4On seeing this, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!”
- 7Luke 11:37–54As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to dine with him; so He went in and reclined at the table.
- 23Proverbs 18:15The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it out.
- 4Proverbs 28:20A faithful man will abound with blessings, but one eager to be rich will not go unpunished.
- 23Matthew 13:44The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.
- 7Luke 7:39When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him—for she is a sinner!”
- 26Psalms 119:2Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart.
- 18Proverbs 24:14Know therefore that wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, there is a future for you, and your hope will never be cut off.
- 18Philippians 1:20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
Onward