Proverbs chapter 23

vs 1

I don't know how many of you have, say, eaten in the presence of royalty, or the PM, or someone like that. The best I've ever done is eaten two meals in the presence of an opposition leader, and one at the birthday of an ex-PM. Two were quite nice, the other was at an RSL. The who/what question in the TNIV is somewhat important here - is this advice given because you're in front of important people? Or is it just given because of the nature of the food (as verse 3 suggests)? Perhaps both?

If we take the 'what' as the TNIV has as their primary translation (which is the same as all the other translations I look at)then we're talking about the richness of the food. This is a warning - beware of this rich fare!

vs 2

This may well ruin the dinner you are at. So possibly it's better not to be a glutton, but if you just can't help yourself, suicide seems the only option. Now, it's about this time that people are going to say, "Suicide? The Bible would never condone such a thing!" Whatever, that's how it reads to me. I guess people probably see the 'knife to throat' as "restrict yourself". Yeah, because that's a pretty natural reading. People hold a knife to their throats (or someone else's) to reign them in all the time.

vs 3

This is the kicker. All this lush, tasty, exotic food might seem nice, but if you get the taste for it, you'll go broke, because you're not the king. Now, if the earlier 'what' is actually a 'who', then the main message is probably that you shouldn't make a fool of yourself scoffing yourself full of lobster at the function, because that shows just how poor you are, and you'll make a bad impression. Ever wonder why so many rich delicacies taste like crap? So rich people don't look silly scoffing them.

vs 4

Ecclesiastes says the same thing, albeit in a much more depressive manner. It doesn't say 'don't get rich', just don't kill yourself doing it. What good is it then?

Regarding not trusting your own cleverness, I think it might be directly related to the 'wearing yourself out to get rich'. So don't think you can somehow do it without getting worn, because you're smart. The wise saying, after all, is don't.

vs 5

Wealth it seems is fleeting. I've never seen it do that... well, yes, of course I have. I've saved up money, then spent it - oh, look at it fly away. Crashed a car? Look at that flock of money just flying up into the sky.

We sometimes hear of people who have or are worth a mecha-gagillion dollars, and we think, "How can this person have so much? What could the possibly do with it?" Then of course they go broke... so something was done with it. Most usually it was used as leverage to get another investment off the ground, and that fails, and the money disappears. Boring story, really. I'd prefer to see someone go broke from wasting it all on ale and whores. The lesson is the same, but that just seems more exciting.

vs 6

I have been on both sides of this coin, and it's not a comfortable place to be. But sometimes, you can be stuck. Someone cooks the food up, for example - they begrudge it, but they have cooked it and served it all the same. If you don't eat it, it's even worse, because it's a waste! Then they hate you anyway.

vs 7

This is the reasoning for the last verse. Sure, they serve it, and they tell you to eat it, but they don't actually want you to. They want to eat it, or for their family to eat it, or whatever.

vs 8

I'm not sure where this is going. Will you vomit from the anxiety or discomfort of being in this situation, or just because God will punish you? I guess the former seems reasonable.

vs 9

This proverb is pretty much impossible to live by, and when you try, you get scorned instead of your words. So I've generally found that it's better to let the fool scorn your words because hey, at least you tried, and then try not to take it personally. I'm no good at that either, but it makes more sense.

vs 10

This has already been said, but you can see the mention of the fatherless here, representing all the marginalised and undefended.

vs 11

And again the reason is the same - God protects them, because no-one else does, and then you're in trouble.