Read the Bible

¹ WHEN you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is set before you,² That you may not put poison in your mouth. And if you are a man given to excessive appetite,³ Be not desirous of his food; for his bread is bread of deceit.

⁴ Do not quarrel with a rich man; but keep away from him wisely.⁵ For if you should fix your eye on him, you cannot see him; for he makes for himself wings like an eagle and flies away toward the sky.

⁶ Do not eat with a hypocrite, neither desire his food;⁷ For he is like him that swallows pitch; in like manner you will eat and drink with him, but his heart is not with you.⁸ The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, and you will lose your sweet words.

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

¹⁰ Do not remove the old landmark; nor enter into the field of the fatherless;¹¹ For their saviour is mighty; he will plead their cause with you.

¹² Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.¹³ Do not withhold chastisement from a child; for if you beat him, he will not die.¹⁴ For when you beat him with the rod, you will deliver his soul from Sheol.¹⁵ My son, if your heart be wise, my heart also will rejoice.¹⁶ Yea, my heart shall rejoice, when your lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners; but revere the LORD all the day long.¹⁸ For surely you will have a future; and your hope shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise, and fasten my counsel in your heart.²⁰ Be not drunk with wine; and be not a gluttonous eater of meat:²¹ For the drunkard and the gluttonous shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.²² Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.²³ Buy the truth, and do not sell wisdom; also buy understanding and instruction.²⁴ The father of a righteous man shall greatly rejoice; and he who begets a wise child shall be glad.²⁵ Your father and your mother shall rejoice in you; and the one who bore you shall be happy.²⁶ My son. give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.²⁷ For a harlot is a deep pit; and a strange woman is a narrow well.²⁸ She destroys men suddenly, and increases iniquity among men.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has trouble? Who has contentions? Who has hardships? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?³⁰ Those who tarry long over the wine; and who search for a place of drinking. Be not drunken with wine, but converse with righteous men; walk and talk with them.³¹ Do not look on the wine when it is red in the cup, but meditate on righteousness.³² For at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.³³ When your eyes behold a strange woman, then your heart shall utter perverse things.³⁴ Yea, you shall be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as a sailor in a tempest.³⁵ They have beaten me, you shall say, but I did not suffer, they have mocked me, but I did not know it; when I shall awake sober, I will go and seek it yet again.