1  When you sit down to eat with a ruler,

observe carefully what¹ is before you,

2  and put a knife to your throat

if you are given to appetite.

3  ^cDo not desire his delicacies,

for they are deceptive food.

4  ^dDo not toil to acquire wealth;

^ebe discerning enough to desist.

5  When your eyes light on it, it is gone,

^ffor suddenly it sprouts wings,

flying like an eagle toward heaven.

6  ^gDo not eat the bread of a man who is ^hstingy;²

ⁱdo not desire his delicacies,

7  for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.³

“Eat and drink!” he says to you,

but his ^jheart is not with you.

8  You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,

and waste your pleasant words.

19  Hear, my son, and ^xbe wise,

and ^ydirect your heart in the way.

20  Be not among ^zdrunkards¹

or among ^agluttonous eaters of meat,

21  for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,

and ^bslumber will clothe them with rags.