BOOK 20 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Proverbs 23

Proverbs book home•Chapter 23 of 31•35 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Proverbs 23 Overview

The father warns against craving a ruler's delicacies, exhausting oneself to be rich, envying sinners, withholding correction, immoral women, and lingering over wine that finally bites like a serpent.

ProverbsBook

23Chapter

35Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Proverbs 23

Coming from

Proverbs 22 emphasized a good name, humility, training, justice, and the beginning of collected wise sayings. Because many proverbs are individual sayings rather than a continuous argument, the chapter-to-chapter connection is thematic rather than narrative.

In this chapter

Leads into

Proverbs 24 turns to wisdom builds, strengthens, and judges fairly, expanding wisdom into another set of choices, contrasts, and observations.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The extended wine warning should be read for what it actually describes: attraction, impaired perception, distorted speech, injury, and desire for another drink. Proverbs uses compact wisdom sayings to train judgment. Its normal patterns describe how God’s moral order ordinarily works; they are not mechanical guarantees that remove human freedom, suffering, or providence.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

Restraint in appetite, wealth, discipline, sexual purity, and alcohol.

Wisdom truth

In Proverbs 23, wisdom is moral skill under the fear of the LORD, not merely intelligence or practical cleverness.

Discipline truth

In Proverbs 23, correction is a necessary part of growing in wisdom, but biblical discipline is never a license for cruelty or abuse.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Wisdom connection

James 3:13-18 distinguishes heavenly wisdom from envy-driven earthly wisdom. This connection helps frame Proverbs 23.

Discipline connection

Hebrews 12:5-11 explicitly quotes Proverbs 3 and explains loving divine chastening. This connection helps frame Proverbs 23.

Sobriety connection

1 Peter 5:8 calls believers to be sober and vigilant. This connection helps frame Proverbs 23.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep wisdom in context

Do not read Proverbs 23 as a set of magic formulas. Proverbs trains wise judgment in the ordinary moral order God established.

Keep discipline in context

Discipline in Proverbs 23 is meant to form wisdom and character; it does not justify rage, humiliation, cruelty, or physical abuse.

Read Proverbs 23 watching for…

knife to throat.

riches make wings.

buy truth.

strange woman pit.

wine red in cup.

Chapter outline8 sections

1-3Show restraint when eating before a ruler 4-5Do not wear yourself out for riches that quickly fly away 6-8Do not eat the bread of one with an evil eye 9-11Do not waste wisdom on a fool or remove old landmarks from the fatherless 12-16Apply the heart to instruction and rejoice when wise truth is spoken 17-18Do not envy sinners; continue in the fear of the LORD with hope 19-28Be wise about appetite, drunkenness, parents, truth, and the danger of the strange woman 29-35The misery, deception, and bondage of drunkenness

When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

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.

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.

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Proverbs 23:13

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