Ecclesiastes 10:11-19

¹¹If a snake bites a man before he charms/tames it, his ability to charm snakes will not benefit him.

¹²Wise people say MTY what is sensible, and because of that, people honor them; but foolish people are destroyed by what they say MTY.

¹³When foolish people start to talk, they say things that are foolish, and they end by saying things that are both wicked and foolish.

¹⁴They talk ◄too much/without ceasing►. None of us knows what will happen in the future, or what will happen after we die.

¹⁵Foolish people become so exhausted by the work that they do that they are unable to find the road to their town/homes.

¹⁶Terrible things will happen to the people of a nation whose ruler is a foolish young man, and whose other leaders continually eat, all day long, every day.

¹⁷But a nation will prosper if its ruler is from a ◄noble/well-educated► family, and if its other leaders feast only at the proper times, and if they eat and drink only to be strong, not to become drunk.

¹⁸Some men are very lazy and do not repair the rafters, with the result that the rafters sag and collapse; and if they do not repair the roof, water will leak into the house when it rains.

¹⁹Eating food and drinking wine causes us to laugh and be happy, but we are able to enjoy those things only if we have money to buy them.