True Riches
(1 Timothy 6:17–19; James 5:1–6)

1When you sit down to eat with a leader, pay close attention to what has been set before your face,

2and put a knife to your throat, if, in such a way, you could hold your soul in your own power.

3Do not desire his foods, in which is the bread of deceit.

Saying 8

4Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.

5Do not raise your eyes toward wealth that you are not able to have. For they will make themselves wings, like those of an eagle, and they will fly in the sky.

Saying 9

6Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.

7For, like a seer and an interpreter of dreams, he presumes what he does not know. “Eat and drink,” he will say to you; and his mind is not with you.

8The foods that you had eaten, you will vomit up. And you will lose the beauty in your words.

Saying 10

9Do not speak into the ears of the unwise. They will despise the doctrine of your eloquence.

Saying 11

10Do not touch the boundaries of little ones, and do not enter into the field of the fatherless.

11For their close relative is strong, and he will judge their case against you.

Saying 12

12Let your heart enter into doctrine, and let your ears enter into words of knowledge.

Saying 13

13Do not be willing to take away discipline from a child. For if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

14You will strike him with the rod, and so shall you deliver his soul from Hell.

Saying 14

15My son, if your soul will become wise, my heart will be glad with you.

16And my temperament will exult, when your lips will have spoken what is upright.

Saying 15

17Let not your heart compete with sinners. But be in the fear of the Lord all day long.

18For you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away.

Saying 16

19Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your soul along the way.

20Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh.

21For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.

Saying 17

22Listen to your father, who conceived you. And do not despise your mother, when she is old.

23Purchase truth, and do not sell wisdom, or doctrine, or understanding.

24The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.

25Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.

Saying 18

26My son, offer me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.

27For a loose woman is a deep pit, and a foreign woman is a constricted well.

28She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.

Saying 19

29Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?

30Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups?

31Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,

32but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes.

33Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.

34And you will be like someone sleeping in the middle of the sea, and like a pilot, fast asleep, who has lost his hold on the helm.

35And you will say: “They have beaten me, but I did not feel pain. They have dragged me, and I did not realize it. When will I awaken and find more wine?”