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Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.
    Be wise enough to know when to quit.
In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,
    for it will sprout wings
    and fly away like an eagle.

Don’t eat with people who are stingy;
    don’t desire their delicacies.
They are always thinking about how much it costs.[a]
    “Eat and drink,” they say, but they don’t mean it.
You will throw up what little you’ve eaten,
    and your compliments will be wasted.

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Footnotes

  1. 23:7 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

Do not tire in order to become rich;
    out of your understanding, may you desist.
Your eyes will alight[a] on it, but there is nothing to it,
    for suddenly it will make for itself wings
    like an eagle and it will be exhausted in the heavens.
Do not eat the bread of the stingy,[b]
    and do not desire his delicacies.
For, like hair in his throat,[c] so it is.[d]
    “Eat and drink!” he will say to you,
    but his heart will not be with you.
Your morsel you have eaten, you will vomit it up,
    and you will waste your pleasant words.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:5 Literally “cause to fly”
  2. Proverbs 23:6 Literally “stingy of eye”
  3. Proverbs 23:7 Literally “soul,” or “inner self”
  4. Proverbs 23:7 Or “is he”