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.
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.
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.
9.
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.
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.
12.
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.
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.
15.
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.
16.
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
17.
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
LIFE IS FOR GOD
‘Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.’
Proverbs 23:17
I. Holy Scripture is full of warnings against this fatal form of envy, for indeed in this form came the first temptation to our mother Eve.
II. God’s Holy Spirit, thus proclaiming the mischief, in His love proclaims also the remedy.—The way not to let one’s ‘heart envy sinners’ is to ‘be in fear of the Lord all the day long.’
III. We are almost sure to begin to wish ourselves like the wicked if we willingly abide in their company.—Therefore doth the wise man especially caution us that if we would not be ‘envious towards evil men,’ we must not ‘desire to be with them.’ Remember the end of these men, then you will leave off envying them, and you will begin to pity them and pray for them.
—Rev. J. Keble.
Illustration
‘We must not think that the ground of these prohibitions is an unreasoning caprice. They are founded in the love of God. It is because He loves us so much that He puts us on our guard against things which are really detrimental, and which we should be the first to forgo, if we loved ourselves with as real and deep a love as His. God knows that yielding to the imperious dictates of passion ruins the moral life, the peace of the heart, the strength and energy of the soul, and He warns us against them for our own sake. Oh! do not look on God as delighting in depriving you of things you like for arbitrary reasons, but for the deepest reasons, the cogency of which you would be the first to acknowledge if you knew all.’
18.
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
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.
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.
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.