Proverbs 23:1-11 ▼

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 Do not be desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful food.

4 Do not 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 Do not eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and do not 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 The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.

9 Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

10 Do not move the ancient boundary stone. Do not encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

11 for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.