Proverbs 23:15-35

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

¹⁹ Hear, my child, and be wise,
    and direct your mind in the way.
²⁰ Do not be among winebibbers,
    or among gluttonous eaters of meat;
²¹ for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
    and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.

²² Listen to your father who begot you,
    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 begets a wise son will be glad in him.
²⁵ Let your father and mother be glad;
    let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My child, give me your heart,
    and let your eyes observe^[a] my ways.
²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit;
    an adulteress^[b] is a narrow well.
²⁸ She lies in wait like a robber
    and increases the number of the faithless.

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 linger late over wine,
    those who keep trying mixed wines.
³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup
    and goes down smoothly.
³² At the last it bites like a serpent,
    and stings like an adder.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your mind 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.^[c]
35 ‘They struck me’, you will say,^[d] ‘but I was not hurt;
    they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
    I will seek another drink.’