Read the Bible

¹ When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
consider carefully what is before you,
² and put a knife to your throat
if you possess a large appetite.
³ Do not crave that ruler's delicacies,
for that food is deceptive.
⁴ Do not wear yourself out to become rich;
be wise enough to restrain yourself.
⁵ When you gaze upon riches, they are gone,
for they surely make wings for themselves,
and fly off into the sky like an eagle!
⁶ Do not eat the food of a stingy person,
do not crave his delicacies;
⁷ for he is like someone calculating the cost in his mind.
"Eat and drink," he says to you,
but his heart is not with you;
⁸ you will vomit up the little bit you have eaten,
and will have wasted your pleasant words.
⁹ Do not speak in the ears of a fool,
for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
¹⁰ Do not move an ancient boundary stone,
or take over the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Protector is strong;
he will plead their case against you.
¹² Apply your heart to instruction
and your ears to the words of knowledge.
¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child;
even if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.
¹⁴ If you strike him with the rod,
you will deliver him from death.
¹⁵ My child, if your heart is wise,
then my heart also will be glad;
¹⁶ my soul will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right.
¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but rather be zealous in fearing the Lord all the time.
¹⁸ For surely there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
¹⁹ Listen, my child, and be wise,
and guide your heart on the right way.
²⁰ Do not spend time among drunkards,
among those who eat too much meat,
²¹ because drunkards and gluttons become impoverished,
and drowsiness clothes them with rags.
²² Listen to your father who begot you,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
²³ Acquire truth and do not sell it—
wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.
²⁴ The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly;
whoever fathers a wise child will have joy in him.
²⁵ May your father and your mother have joy;
may she who bore you rejoice.
²⁶ Give me your heart, my son,
and let your eyes observe my ways;
²⁷ for a prostitute is like a deep pit;
a harlot is like a narrow well.
²⁸ Indeed, she lies in wait like a robber,
and increases the unfaithful among men.
²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause? Who has dullness of the eyes?
³⁰ Those who linger over wine,
those who go looking for mixed wine.
³¹ Do not look on the wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup,
when it goes down smoothly.
³² Afterward it bites like a snake,
and stings like a viper.
³³ Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind will speak perverse things.
³⁴ And you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging.
³⁵ You will say, "They have struck me, but I am not harmed!
They beat me, but I did not know it!
When will I awake? I will look for another drink."