23 When you sit to dine with a ruler,
    note well what^[a] is before you,
² and put a knife to your throat
    if you are given to gluttony.
³ Do not crave his delicacies,^(A)
    for that food is deceptive.

⁴ Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    do not trust your own cleverness.
⁵ Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,^(B)
    for they will surely sprout wings
    and fly off to the sky like an eagle.^(C)

⁶ Do not eat the food of a begrudging host,
    do not crave his delicacies;^(D)
7 for he is the kind of person
    who is always thinking about the cost.^[b]
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
    but his heart is not with you.
⁸ You will vomit up the little you have eaten
    and will have wasted your compliments.