Catholic Public Domain Version

Proverbs 23:17-30 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

17. Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.

18. For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.

19. Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.

20. Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh.

21. For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.

22. Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.

23. Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.

24. The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.

25. Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.

26. My son, offer me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.

27. For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.

28. She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.

29. Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?

30. Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?