1. When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
observe carefully what is before you,
2. and put a knife to your throat
if you are given to appetite.
3. Do not desire his delicacies,
for they are deceptive food.
4. Do not toil to acquire wealth;
be discerning enough to desist.
5. When your eyes light on it, it is gone,
for suddenly it sprouts wings,
flying like an eagle toward heaven.
6. Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
do not desire his delicacies,
7. for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.
8. You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,
and waste your pleasant words.
9. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
for he will despise the good sense of your words.
10. Do not move an ancient landmark
or enter the fields of the fatherless,
11. for their Redeemer is strong;
he will plead their cause against you.
12. Apply your heart to instruction
and your ear to words of knowledge.
Comment: In 1-4 I love the phrase ‘put a knife to your throat’. Don’t get to the place where you must have all the fine delicacies of life. There are much better goals in life at which to aim!
5 don’t waste your time on daydreaming – the dreams fly away as a bird when you get near to catch it.
6-9 are a group and I clicked the little number which in my Bible is after the word ‘stingy’: The Hebrew apparently means ‘has an evil eye’. Now it makes sense to me. Don’t sit down in closeness with a person who is devious and evil. His aim is to deceive you and you will be wasting your time – you need to get rid of his attitude, to vomit it out of your system, and if you try to influence him you will be wasting your words.
10&11 God is on the side of justice.
12. When you buy furniture in a box that needs to be assembled read the instructions first. And life is like that there is plenty of wisdom out there – particularly in God’s word – to help in living life at the best!
Prayer: Please help your word to get from my ear to my mind and heart!
As I read it! 
Thank you Barry for explaining the word “stingy.” I was thinking of the word “stingey” which we use when we talk of someone who is mean and selfish and doesn’t think of others. So that explanation helped me to understand the verse.
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Glad it helped, the other meaning didn’t seem to make sense!
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