Proverbs 23

Proverbs 23:1-35 KJV
Rulers and leaders are not always to be trusted
(1) When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
(2) And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
(3) Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

Get your priorities straight, Troy!
(4) Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
(5) Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
Money: easy come, easy go

Another reference to rulers/leaders???
(6) Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
(7) For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
(8) The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

Don't waste your time with some people...
(9) Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

Be mindful of the 'down and out'
(10) Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
(11) For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

Listen to good preaching!
(12) Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Manage your kids, Troy
(13) Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
(14) Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

How to please God today...
(15) My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
believe and think right...
(16) Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
speak right...
(17) Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
note: ALL THE DAY LONG...that's my battle...be in it ALL the day long
(18) For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
what's the end of it all? well, that depends on how you lived all the day long...

Be wise, dumb-dumb!
(19) Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
(20) Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
(21) For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
there's the end for the drinker and partier

MAKE YOUR PARENTS PROUD WHEN YOU GROW UP!
(22) Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
(23) Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
(24) The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
(25) Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

Immodest, immoral women and alcohol go together
(26) My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.
(27) For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
(28) She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
(29) Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
(30) They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
(31) Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
(32) At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
(33) Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
(34) 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.
(35) They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.