A person with an evil eye hurries after wealth And does not know that poverty will come upon him.
Parallel translations
- WEB A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn’t know that poverty waits for him.
- KJV He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
- BSB A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty awaits him.
- NKJV A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, And does not consider that poverty will come upon him.
- NLT Greedy people try to get rich quick but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty.
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
The greedy rush after wealth, unaware that poverty is coming for them. It warns that miserly, hasty pursuit of riches ends in loss.
Overview
The stingy person eagerly chases riches while blind to the poverty that awaits as the fruit of his greed. The verse exposes the self-defeating nature of covetous haste. Jesus warns that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions and that storing up earthly treasure while neglecting God is folly (Luke 12:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Tim 6:9But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.
- Prov 23:6Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies:
- Prov 28:20A faithful man is rich with blessings; but one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.
- Job 27:16–17Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;
- Matt 20:15Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’
- Mark 7:22covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
- Job 20:18–22That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.
- Gen 19:17It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
- Gen 13:10–13Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 28:22 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
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