(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 exhaust yourself acquiring wealth;
    be smart enough to stop.
When you fix your gaze on it, it’s gone,
    for it sprouts wings for itself
        and flies to the sky like an eagle.

Don’t consume food provided by a miserly[a] person,
    and don’t desire his delicacies,
for as he thinks within himself, so he is.
    “Eat and drink!” he’ll say to you,
        but his heart won’t be with you.
You’ll vomit up what little you’ve eaten,
    and your compliments will have been wasted.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:6 Lit. by the evil eyed