When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you,

I saw that thorns had grown up all over it, the ground was covered with weeds, and its stone wall was broken down.

for it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than to put you lower before a prince, whom your eyes have seen.

To show partiality is terrible, for a person will transgress over the smallest piece of bread.

So I was far wealthier than all my predecessors in Jerusalem, yet I maintained my objectivity:

I have seen another misfortune on the earth: It is an error a ruler makes.

If an iron axhead is blunt and a workman does not sharpen its edge, he must exert a great deal of effort; so wisdom has the advantage of giving success.

Send your grain overseas, for after many days you will get a return.

My vineyard, which belongs to me, is at my disposal alone. The thousand shekels belong to you, O Solomon, and two hundred shekels belong to those who maintain it for its fruit.

When you enter my presence, do you actually think I want this – animals trampling on my courtyards?

Go up into the rocky cliffs, hide in the ground. Get away from the dreadful judgment of the Lord, from his royal splendor!

captains of groups of fifty, the respected citizens, advisers and those skilled in magical arts, and those who know incantations.

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” The sovereign Lord who commands armies has spoken.

The leaders and the highly respected people are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth and leave it in ruins; he will mar its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O Lord.

The time is coming when Jacob will take root; Israel will blossom and grow branches. The produce will fill the surface of the world.

Turn aside from the way, stray off the path. Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.”

“I will go before you and level mountains. Bronze doors I will shatter and iron bars I will hack through.

Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, I know about them.’