✧When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is set before you, ✧2and put a knife to your throat if you possess a great appetite. ✧3Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. ✧4Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself. ✧5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky. ✧6Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies; ✧7for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ✧8You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. ✧9Do not speak to a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. ✧10Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, ✧11for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you. ✧12Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.