Don't Wear Yourself Out
Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD. Proverbs 23:17 · Berean Standard Bible
Don't spend your emotional energy wishing you had what sinners have or that their life was yours—instead, keep your focus on honoring God.
It's tempting to envy people who seem to be getting away with wrong things and enjoying themselves. The young person is being warned: don't let their apparent success pull your heart away from what actually matters.
A father or wise teacher speaking to a young person
This is the heart of biblical wisdom—the recognition that the world's values and God's values often appear opposed. You have to choose which one you're actually going to trust and pursue.
Do not allow yourself to become envious of sinners or their apparent success; instead, maintain unwavering reverence for the Lord as your existential orientation.
The warning against envy (קנא, kinah) of sinners addresses a persistent spiritual temptation in wisdom literature; the wicked often appear prosperous and satisfied while the righteous suffer. Qohelet explores this tension at length. Yet the antidote—'fear of the Lord'—represents not terror but covenantal reverence, the fundamental posture of trust that God's justice ultimately prevails.
The wisdom teacher, identifying what may be the deepest threat to sustained righteousness: the seemingly unrewarded virtue of the good contrasted with the flourishing of the wicked.
This verse addresses the theodicy problem that haunts wisdom literature from Job through Psalms—the apparent invisibility of divine justice—yet asserts that faith in ultimate divine vindication provides the only stable foundation for resisting the spiritual seduction of wickedness.
15My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will indeed rejoice.
16My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
17Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.
18For surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
19Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart on the right course.
Read all of Proverbs 23 — Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint. Riches sprout wings and fly away like an eagle.
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