Proverbs
Chapter 23

1] When you sit down to dine with a ruler, keep in mind who is before you;
2] And put a knife to your throat if you have a ravenous appetite.
3] Do not desire his delicacies; they are deceitful food.
4] Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it;
5] While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven.
6] Do not take food with a grudging man, and do not desire his dainties;
7] For in his greed he is like a storm. "Eat and drink," he says to you, though his heart is not with you;
8] The little you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will have wasted your agreeable words.
9] Speak not for the fool's hearing; he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10] Remove not the ancient landmark, nor invade the fields of orphans;
11] For their redeemer is strong; he will defend their cause against you.
12] Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.
13] Withhold not chastisement from a boy; if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14] Beat him with the rod, and you will save him from the nether world.
15] My son, if your heart be wise, my own heart also will rejoice;
16] And my inmost being will exult, when your lips speak what is right.
17] Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the LORD always;
18] For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19] Hear, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way.
20] Consort not with winebibbers, nor with those who eat meat to excess;
21] For the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and torpor clothes a man in rags.
22] Listen to your father who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.
23] Get the truth, and sell it not-- wisdom, instruction and understanding.
24] The father of a just man will exult with glee; he who begets a wise son will have joy in him.
25] Let your father and mother have joy; let her who bore you exult.
26] My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.
27] For the harlot is a deep ditch, and the adulteress a narrow pit;
28] Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the faithless among men.
29] Who scream? Who shriek? Who have strife? Who have anxiety? Who have wounds for nothing? Who have black eyes?
30] Those who linger long over wine, those who engage in trials of blended wine.
31] Look not on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the glass. It goes down smoothly;
32] but in the end it bites like a serpent, or like a poisonous adder.
33] Your eyes behold strange sights, and your heart utters disordered thoughts;
34] You are like one now lying in the depths of the sea, now sprawled at the top of the mast.
35] "They struck me, but it pained me not; They beat me, but I felt it not; When shall I awake to seek wine once again?"


Source: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/proverbs/proverb23.htm