When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you,
Do you see a person skilled in his work? He will take his position before kings; he will not take his position before obscure people.
and put a knife to your throat if you possess a large appetite.
These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit – twice dead, uprooted;