Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
Parallel translations
- WEB Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- KJV Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
- BSB When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- NASB When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
- NLT In the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wealth is fleeting, sprouting wings and flying away before you know it.
Overview
Riches are pictured as suddenly vanishing, like an eagle taking flight, underscoring their unreliability. To fix one's eyes on wealth is to chase what cannot be held. This points to the gospel call to store up treasure in heaven, where it cannot be lost (Matt. 6:19-21; 1 Tim. 6:17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 27:24for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations.
- 1 Jn 2:16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.
- Jas 5:1–2Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.
- Matt 6:19“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;
- 1 Tim 6:17Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy;
- Ps 119:36–37Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
- Gen 42:36Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”
- Eccl 12:8“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”
- Jer 22:17But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
- Ps 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.
- Eccl 1:2“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
- 1 Cor 7:29–31But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;
- Job 1:14–17that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,
- Eccl 5:13–14There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.
- Isa 55:2Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 23:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.