¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”^(A)

⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”^(A)

⁶ Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment,^{(A) 7} for we brought nothing into the world, so that^[a] we can take nothing out of it, ⁸ but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹ But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.^{(B) 10} For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

The Law and the Kingdom of God

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him.^(A)

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,^[a] or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?^{(A) 26} Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?^(B)

¹⁰ The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.^(A)

¹¹ When goods increase, those who eat them increase, and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

¹² Sweet is the sleep of laborers, whether they eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not let them sleep.^(B)

¹³ There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt,^{(C) 14} and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. ¹⁵ As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil that they may carry away with their hands.^{(D) 16} This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go, and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind?^(E)