Proverbs 23:5
Do not raise your eyes toward wealth that you are not able to have. For they will make themselves wings, like those of an eagle, and they will fly in the sky.
Catholic Public Domain Version
In The King James Version
In Context
4Do not be willing to labor so that you may be enriched. But set limits by your prudence.
6Do not eat with an envious man, and do not desire his foods.
Cross References
Job 1:14a messenger came to Job, who said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were grazing beside them,
Psalms 39:6You have accomplished your many wonders, O Lord my God, and there is no one similar to you in your thoughts. I have announced and I have spoken: they are multiplied beyond number.
Proverbs 27:24for you will not always hold this power. But a crown shall be awarded from generation to generation.
Ecclesiastes 5:13For they are lost in a most grievous affliction. He has produced a son, who will be in the utmost destitution.
Isaiah 55:2Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and expend your labor for what does not satisfy? Listen very closely to me, and eat what is good, and then your soul will be delighted by a full measure.
Jeremiah 39:12“Take him, and set your eyes on him, and you shall do no harm to him at all. But as he is willing, so shall you do with him.”
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 23:5-6
4 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. 5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. As some are given to appetite ( v. 2 ) so others to covetousness, and those Solomon here takes to task. Men cheat themselves as much by setting their hearts on money (though it seems most substantial) as by setting them on dainties. Observe, I. How he dissuades the covetous man from toiling and tormenting himself ( v. 4 ). "Do… Read the whole commentary →