When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you,
Parallel translations
- WEB When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;
- KJV When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
- BSB When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you,
- NKJV When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you;
- NLT While dining with a ruler, pay attention to what is put before you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When dining with a powerful ruler, pay careful attention to your situation.
Overview
This begins counsel about self-control and discernment in the presence of the powerful. A meal with a ruler is not simple hospitality but a setting requiring caution and watchfulness. Wisdom recognizes that favor and danger can sit at the same table, calling for vigilance rather than naive indulgence.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Jude 1:12These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Gen 43:32–34They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians, that ate with him, by themselves, because the Egyptians don’t eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 23:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.