When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you,
Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.
and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.
These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.