Single lesson
Proverbs 23: True Riches
Proverbs 23:1–35
Proverbs 23 gathers many short warnings into one lesson about what people value. Students will compare those warnings in order and identify how the chapter treats wisdom, truth, reverence for Yahweh, and family joy as better riches.
Before you teach
This chapter repeatedly speaks in direct instruction: “don’t”, “listen”, “apply”, “get”, and “give me your heart”. It moves from food, money, speech, justice, and correction to envy, family gladness, sexual unfaithfulness, and drunkenness. Across these examples, the reader is urged to choose wisdom and truth over what merely looks appealing.
Students will be able to trace the main warnings in Proverbs 23 and explain that the chapter presents wisdom, truth, reverence for Yahweh, and a glad family outcome as better than appetite, riches, unfaithfulness, or drunkenness.
Welcome: What do people chase?
6 minWrite four headings: food, money, approval, and pleasure. Ask students for examples of things people strongly want in each area. Explain that Proverbs 23 tests whether those desires lead to wisdom. Introduce one key line, “Buy the truth, and don’t sell it”, and tell students to listen for other voices that compete with that value.
Proverbs 23:3, Proverbs 23:5, Proverbs 23:17, Proverbs 23:23, Proverbs 23:31
Read the chapter in order and mark each warning
11 minRead the chapter in clear blocks: verses 1-8, 9-12, 13-18, 19-28, and 29-35. After each block, ask students to name the danger and the wiser response. Include the warning about correction in verses 13-14 by observing what the verses say about serious discipline and rescue, without treating them as instructions for students to act out or for modern punishments in class.
Proverbs 23:1, Proverbs 23:8, Proverbs 23:9, Proverbs 23:12, Proverbs 23:13, Proverbs 23:14, Proverbs 23:17, Proverbs 23:18, Proverbs 23:23, Proverbs 23:27, Proverbs 23:28, Proverbs 23:35
Discuss the voices: deceit, instruction, and joy
8 minCompare the person who says “Eat and drink” while his heart is elsewhere with the parent voice that says “Listen”, “Get wisdom”, and “Give me your heart”. Then notice the repeated family joy thread: wise speech and righteous living bring gladness and rejoicing to father and mother. Ask which voice leads to trust, hope, and right paths.
Proverbs 23:7, Proverbs 23:15, Proverbs 23:16, Proverbs 23:22, Proverbs 23:23, Proverbs 23:24, Proverbs 23:25, Proverbs 23:26
Respond with a reminder card and a realistic example
9 minStudents choose one key verse and copy it onto a card. On the back, they write one realistic situation from the chapter such as chasing money, envying sinners, ignoring parents, or treating wine as attractive. Older students may also note that verses 27-28 warn that sexual unfaithfulness is a danger that traps and increases unfaithfulness. Share a few examples aloud.
Proverbs 23:4, Proverbs 23:17, Proverbs 23:23, Proverbs 23:27, Proverbs 23:28, Proverbs 23:31, Proverbs 23:32
Closing: Name the chapter’s true riches
6 minFinish by asking students to summarise the chapter in one sentence using its own words where possible. Draw together the chapter’s repeated focus on the heart, the ears, the right path, truth, fear of Yahweh, and the joy of parents when a child is wise and righteous. Emphasise that the chapter weighs outcomes, not just appearances.
Proverbs 23:12, Proverbs 23:17, Proverbs 23:19, Proverbs 23:23, Proverbs 23:24, Proverbs 23:25, Proverbs 23:26
Questions to explore
How do Proverbs 23:4-5 describe riches, and what does that picture teach?
Use the image in the verses themselves and explain what it suggests about trying to secure wealth.
Proverbs 23:4, Proverbs 23:5
What repeated signs of family joy appear in this chapter, and what brings that joy?
Look at the verses about a wise heart, right speech, righteousness, and the gladness of father and mother.
Proverbs 23:15, Proverbs 23:16, Proverbs 23:24, Proverbs 23:25
What dangers are named in the final warnings about sexual unfaithfulness and wine?
List the effects the passage gives, such as lying in wait, increasing unfaithfulness, woe, confusion, and the desire to return for more.
Proverbs 23:27, Proverbs 23:28, Proverbs 23:29, Proverbs 23:32, Proverbs 23:33, Proverbs 23:35
Make, think or respond
Truth Reminder Card
What you’ll need
- scrap paper or index cards
- pens or pencils
- Bible text
- coloured pencils or markers
Try it together
- Ask each student to choose one verse from Proverbs 23 that states a key wisdom teaching.
- Have them copy the verse onto one side of a card and circle the most important word or phrase.
- On the other side, ask them to write one realistic example from the chapter that this verse answers.
- Students add one sentence beginning, “This passage teaches...” and then share with a partner or small group.
This activity helps students connect a chosen verse to one of the chapter’s warnings and identify what Proverbs 23 treats as true riches.
Adapt for your group
- For younger or less confident readers, offer four pre-selected verses such as Proverbs 23:12, Proverbs 23:18, Proverbs 23:23, and Proverbs 23:25, and let them match each verse to a warning from the chapter.
- For older or advanced students, ask them to sort the whole chapter into themes such as appetite, wealth, justice, discipline, family joy, sexual unfaithfulness, and drunkenness, then defend which verse best states the central teaching.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us love truth, listen to wisdom, and keep our hearts on the right path. Please teach us to choose what is good and to turn from what leads us away from wisdom. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Proverbs 23
1 When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;
2 put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.
3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food.
4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
6 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies,
7 for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
8 You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.
15 My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.
16 Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear Yahweh all day long.
18 Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!
20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat;
21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!
26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.
29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.
31 Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
32 In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.
34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.