Proverbs 28:22

22 he that hath an evil eye hasteth after riches, And knoweth not that want shall come upon him.

Proverbs 28:22 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 28:22

He that hasteth to be rich
As every man that is eagerly desirous of riches is; he would be rich at once F26, and cannot wait with any patience in the ordinary course of means: [hath] an evil eye;
on the substance of others, to get it, right or wrong; is an evil man, and takes evil methods to be rich F1; see ( 1 Timothy 6:9 1 Timothy 6:10 ) ; or an envious one; is an envious man; as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; he envies others, as the Vulgate Latin version, the riches of other men; he grudges everything that goes beside himself; and that makes him in haste to be rich, that he may be equal to or superior to others: or he is a sordid, avaricious, illiberal man, that will not part with anything for the relief, for others, and is greedy of everything to amass wealth to himself; an evil eye is opposed to a good or bountiful one, that is, to a man that is liberal and generous, ( Proverbs 22:9 ) ( Matthew 20:15 ) ; and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him;
for wealth gotten hastily, and especially wrongfully, diminishes, wastes, and comes to nothing in the end; it sometimes flies away as fast as it comes; it has wings to do the one, as well as the other: this the man in haste to be rich does not consider, or he would have taken another method; since this is not the true way of getting and keeping riches, but of losing them, and coming to want; see ( Proverbs 13:11 ) ( 20:21 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F26 "Nam dives qui fieri vult, et cito vult fieri", Juvenal. Satyr. 14. v. 176.
F1 "Sed quae reverentia legum? quis metus, ant pudor est unquam properantis avari?" Juvenal, ib.

Proverbs 28:22 In-Context

20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings; But he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be unpunished.
21 To have respect of persons is not good; Neither that a man should transgress for a piece of bread.
22 he that hath an evil eye hasteth after riches, And knoweth not that want shall come upon him.
23 He that rebuketh a man shall afterward find more favor Than he that flattereth with the tongue.
24 Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression, The same is the companion of a destroyer.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.