Proverbs 23:5
Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
World English Bible British
In The King James Version
In Context
4Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
6Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies,
Cross References
Job 1:14that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were ploughing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,
Psalms 39:6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
Proverbs 27:24for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations.
Ecclesiastes 5:13There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.
Isaiah 55:2Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.
Jeremiah 39:12“Take him and take care of him. Do him no harm; but do to him even as he tells you.”
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 →