Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

23 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
    observe carefully what is before you,
² and put a knife to your throat
    if you are given to appetite.
³ Do not desire his delicacies,
    for they are deceptive food.
⁴ Do not toil to acquire wealth;
    be discerning enough to desist.
⁵ When your eyes light on it, it is gone,
    for suddenly it sprouts wings,
    flying like an eagle toward heaven.
⁶ Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
    do not desire his delicacies,
⁷ for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
    “Eat and drink!” he says to you,
    but his heart is not with you.
⁸ You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,
    and waste your pleasant words.
⁹ Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
    for he will despise the good sense of your words.
¹⁰ Do not move an ancient landmark
    or enter the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Redeemer is strong;
    he will plead their cause against you.
¹² Apply your heart to instruction
    and your ear to words of knowledge.
¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child;
    if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ If you strike him with the rod,
    you will save his soul from Sheol.
¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise,
    my heart too will be glad.
¹⁶ My inmost being will exult
    when your lips speak what is right.
¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners,
    but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
¹⁸ Surely there is a future,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise,
    and direct your heart in the way.
²⁰ Be not among drunkards
    or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
    and slumber will clothe them with rags.

²² Listen to your father who gave you life,
    and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Buy truth, and do not sell it;
    buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
²⁴ The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
    he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
²⁵ Let your father and mother be glad;
    let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me your heart,
    and let your eyes observe my ways.
²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit;
    an adulteress is a narrow well.
²⁸ She lies in wait like a robber
    and increases the traitors among mankind.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
    Who has redness of eyes?
³⁰ Those who tarry long over wine;
    those who go to try mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup
    and goes down smoothly.
³² In the end it bites like a serpent
    and stings like an adder.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your heart utter perverse things.
³⁴ You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
    like one who lies on the top of a mast.
³⁵ “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
    they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
    I must have another drink.”