Proverbs Chapter 23

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face:
2 And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.
3 Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.
4 Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.
5 Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.
6 Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:
7 Because, like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.
8 The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt lose thy beautiful words.
9 Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.
10 Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:
11 For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.

12 Let thy heart apply itself to instruction and thy ears to words of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.
15 My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:
16 And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.
17 Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:
18 Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.
19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.
20 Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:
21 Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together, shall be consumed: and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.
22 Hearken to thy father, that begot thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.
23 Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
24 The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.
25 Let thy father and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.
26 My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.
27 For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
28 She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.

29 Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
30 Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups.
31 Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,
32 But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.
33 Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
34 And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep when the stern is lost.
35 And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake and find wine again?

Old Testament first published 1609 by the English College at Douay
New Testament first published 1582 by the English College at Rheims
Revised and Annotated 1749 by Bishop Richard Challoner
Imprimatur. +James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 Quando sederis ut comedas cum principe,
diligenter attende quæ apposita sunt ante faciem tuam.
2 Et statue cultrum in gutture tuo:
si tamen habes in potestate animam tuam.
3 Ne desideres de cibis ejus,
in quo est panis mendacii.
4 Noli laborare ut diteris,
sed prudentiæ tuæ pone modum.
5 Ne erigas oculos tuos ad opes quas non potes habere,
quia facient sibi pennas quasi aquilæ, et volabunt in cælum.
6 Ne comedas cum homine invido,
et ne desideres cibos ejus:
7 quoniam in similitudinem arioli et conjectoris
æstimat quod ignorat.
Comede et bibe, dicet tibi;
et mens ejus non est tecum.
8 Cibos quos comederas evomes,
et perdes pulchros sermones tuos.
9 In auribus insipientium ne loquaris,
qui despicient doctrinam eloquii tui.
10 Ne attingas parvulorum terminos,
et agrum pupillorum ne introëas:
11 propinquus enim illorum fortis est,
et ipse judicabit contra te causam illorum.

12 Ingrediatur ad doctrinam cor tuum,
et aures tuæ ad verba scientiæ.
13 Noli subtrahere a puero disciplinam:
si enim percusseris eum virga, non morietur.
14 Tu virga percuties eum,
et animam ejus de inferno liberabis.
15 Fili mi, si sapiens fuerit animus tuus,
gaudebit tecum cor meum:
16 et exsultabunt renes mei,
cum locuta fuerint rectum labia tua.
17 Non æmuletur cor tuum peccatores,
sed in timore Domini esto tota die:
18 quia habebis spem in novissimo,
et præstolatio tua non auferetur.
19 Audi, fili mi, et esto sapiens,
et dirige in via animum tuum.
20 Noli esse in conviviis potatorum,
nec in comessationibus eorum qui carnes ad vescendum conferunt:
21 quia vacantes potibus et dantes symbola consumentur,
et vestietur pannis dormitatio.
22 Audi patrem tuum, qui genuit te,
et ne contemnas cum senuerit mater tua.
23 Veritatem eme, et noli vendere sapientiam,
et doctrinam, et intelligentiam.
24 Exsultat gaudio pater justi;
qui sapientem genuit, lætabitur in eo.
25 Gaudeat pater tuus et mater tua,
et exsultet quæ genuit te.
26 Præbe, fili mi, cor tuum mihi,
et oculi tui vias meas custodiant.
27 Fovea enim profunda est meretrix,
et puteus angustus aliena.
28 Insidiatur in via quasi latro,
et quos incautos viderit, interficiet.

29 Cui væ? cujus patri væ?
cui rixæ? cui foveæ?
cui sine causa vulnera? cui suffusio oculorum?
30 nonne his qui commorantur in vino,
et student calicibus epotandis?
31 Ne intuearis vinum quando flavescit,
cum splenduerit in vitro color ejus:
ingreditur blande,
32 sed in novissimo mordebit ut coluber,
et sicut regulus venena diffundet.
33 Oculi tui videbunt extraneas,
et cor tuum loquetur perversa.
34 Et eris sicut dormiens in medio mari,
et quasi sopitus gubernator, amisso clavo.
35 Et dices: Verberaverunt me, sed non dolui;
traxerunt me, et ego non sensi.
Quando evigilabo, et rursus vina reperiam?

Transcribed as part of the Clementine Vulgate Project
Please notify the original transcriber (little.mouth@soon.com) of any errors in this Latin edition

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