"When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; 2And put a knife to your throat. If you are a man given to appetite.3Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food. 4Do not overwork to be rich;
Because of your own understanding, cease! 5[a]Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. 6Do not eat the bread of a[b] miser, Nor desire his delicacies; 7For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you,
But his heart is not with you. 8The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste your pleasant words. 9Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words 10Do not remove the ancient [c]landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless; 11For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you. 12Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to words of knowledge. 13Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. 14You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from [d]hell. 15My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;
16Yes, my [e]inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things. 17Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day; 18For surely there is a [f]hereafter,
And your hope will not be cut off. 19Hear, my son, and be wise;
And guide your heart in the way. 20Do not mix with winebibbers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; 21For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. 22Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
