(A)Do not toil to acquire wealth;
    (B)be discerning enough to desist.
When your eyes light on it, it is gone,
    (C)for suddenly it sprouts wings,
    flying like an eagle toward heaven.
(D)Do not eat the bread of a man who is (E)stingy;[a]
    (F)do not desire his delicacies,
for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.[b]
    “Eat and drink!” he says to you,
    but his (G)heart is not with you.
You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,
    and waste your pleasant words.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:6 Hebrew whose eye is evil
  2. Proverbs 23:7 Or for as he calculates in his soul, so is he

Don’t wear yourself out to get rich;(A)
stop giving your attention to it.
As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears,(B)
for it makes wings for itself
and flies like an eagle to the sky.

Don’t eat a stingy person’s bread,[a](C)
and don’t desire his choice food,(D)
for it’s like someone calculating inwardly.[b](E)
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.(F)
You will vomit the little you’ve eaten
and waste your pleasant words.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:6 Lit eat bread of an evil eye
  2. Proverbs 23:7 LXX reads it is like someone swallowing a hair in the throat