Proverbs 23:4

The verb yâgaʻ, “labour”, means to toil until one is tired, and it describes effort that leaves a person worn out and spent. Joined to “to be rich”, it pictures a life in which getting wealth has become the driving aim, pursued at the cost of rest, health, the people around us and our walk with God. The warning is aimed at that all-consuming striving and at the heart behind it, which turns riches into an idol.

Scripture counts wealth as one of God’s blessings and a tool for good. In Israel it came from crops, trade and inherited land, and it was often taken as a sign of God’s favour. Scripture also warns again and again of its dangers, because riches can corrupt, become an idol and draw the heart away from righteousness and justice. Proverbs says it plainly elsewhere: “riches are not for ever” (Proverbs 27:24), and “he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Proverbs 28:20), since the hurry to get rich so often leads to dishonest gain. Ecclesiastes laments the toil of man under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1), and it says that the one who loves silver is left unsatisfied by silver (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

The second half of the verse names the root of the trouble. “Cease” is châdal, to leave off, stop or forbear, and here it is a direct command. “Wisdom” is bîynâh, understanding or discernment, from the verb bîyn, to discern. It is the practical insight and shrewdness by which people make their way in the world. “Thine own wisdom” is that understanding when we lean on it alone: our cleverness and our schemes for getting ahead, above all when we are chasing money.

The two halves belong together. The first names what we do, wearing ourselves out for riches, and the second names what drives it, a trust in our own understanding. A people who prized shrewdness and cunning would have felt the force of this, and so does a world that admires the self-made success. Human understanding cut off from God is limited and prone to error, and when it sets its sights on wealth it slides easily into misguided or dishonest ways of getting it.

Proverbs gives the other side of this command near its beginning: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5–7). The whole book treats the fear of the LORD as the beginning of knowledge. To cease from our own wisdom, then, is to stop relying on it alone and to seek God’s guidance for our work and our money as for everything else, through prayer, his word and wise counsel. His ways are higher than ours, and his provision is sure.

Verse 5 opens with a question that answers itself: “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” The word for eyes, ʻayin, means the eye itself and is used for sight, perception, the face and even knowledge. To set the eyes on something is to fix one’s gaze on it with the longing such a gaze carries, and here that longing is the covetous desire for wealth.

“That which is not” translates the Hebrew ʼayin, which means “nothing” or “non-existent”. Riches are real enough to count and spend, yet for the purposes of a life they are “nothing”, because they have no lasting substance, they promise much and deliver little, and they can be gone without warning. Money is lost through hard times, theft, poor investments and disasters, and death takes it from everyone in the end. To set the heart on it is to build on a foundation that will give way.

The question also points to God’s hand. Riches lie outside our control, and they can be removed by his providence as well as by the changes of life. Jesus gives the same warning: “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). James asks, “What is your life?” (James 4:14), a question that puts every earthly fortune in its place.

The reason for the question follows: “for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” The verb “make” is ʻâsâh, the ordinary word for doing or making in the broadest sense. The proverb pictures riches as if they could grow wings of their own, and the picture tells us that wealth is only held for a while and can leave suddenly and without warning.

The word for wings, kânâph, means an edge or extremity, and so it covers a bird’s wing, the flap of a garment and the corners of the earth. Here it is the wing of a bird. The verb ʻûwph means to fly or fly away. The bird is the nesher, the eagle or another large bird of prey, known for its strong flight and the heights it reaches. “Heaven” is shâmayim, the heavens or sky, and the eagle rising “toward heaven” climbs out of reach, so that the loss is complete. Once an eagle has climbed into the sky, the one watching from the ground has lost it for good.

The verses belong to the part of Proverbs known as the Sayings of the Wise (Proverbs 22:17–24:34), a collection with its own introduction that gives practical and moral counsel for daily life. Just before them, the reader is taught to sit at a ruler’s table with self-control (Proverbs 23:1–3). Just after them comes a warning against eating the bread of a man with an evil eye (Proverbs 23:6–8), and later in the chapter a warning about those who drink too much wine (Proverbs 23:20–21). Together they call for self-control wherever appetite, money and status meet.

Jesus speaks to this same pull of the heart. He tells his disciples to lay up treasures in heaven, safe from moth, rust and thieves, because where our treasure is, our heart will be also (Matthew 6:19–21). He says that a man serves one master, God or mammon (Matthew 6:24), and he calls us away from anxious thought about food and clothing to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:25–34). Paul warns that they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and that the love of money has led some astray from the faith and pierced them through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:9–10).

Christ also answers the second half of verse 4. In place of our own wisdom, God has given us Christ, who “of God is made unto us wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:30). He lived in humble dependence on his Father, and “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The riches he gives are eternal life, righteousness, and the peace and joy in the Holy Ghost that make up the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and the salvation he brings is worth more than any fortune and stays when every fortune has flown.

These verses set two things side by side: riches that fly away, and the Lord who stays. They free us from the weariness of chasing more and from the anxiety of holding on to what we have, because our provision and our security rest with God. Money becomes a gift from him, to be used wisely for his glory and the good of others and held with an open hand. And the question of verse 5 has a good answer, because there is one on whom we can set our eyes without fear of loss, and the treasure he gives is kept in heaven.