1. WHEN YOU sit down to eat with a ruler, consider who and what are before you;
2. For you will put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to desire.
3. Be not desirous of his dainties, for it is deceitful food [offered with questionable motives].
4. Weary not yourself to be rich; cease from your own [human] wisdom. [Prov. 28:20; I Tim. 6:9, 10.]
5. Will you set your eyes upon wealth, when [suddenly] it is gone? For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
6. Eat not the bread of him who has a hard, grudging, and envious eye, neither desire his dainty foods;
7. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].
8. The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, and your complimentary words will be wasted.
9. Speak not in the ears of a [self-confident] fool, for he will despise the [godly] Wisdom of your words. [Isa. 32:6.]
10. Remove not the ancient landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless, [Deut. 19:14; 27:17; Prov. 22:28.]
11. For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.
12. Apply your mind to instruction and correction and your ears to words of knowledge.
13. Withhold not discipline from the child; for if you strike and punish him with the [reedlike] rod, he will not die.
14. You shall whip him with the rod and deliver his life from Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).
15. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will be glad, even mine;
16. Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak right things.