Don't Wear Yourself Out
Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies; Proverbs 23:6 · Berean Standard Bible
Don't accept food from someone stingy and miserly—the whole situation will leave you feeling empty and used.
A stingy person's hospitality is a trap. They begrudge every bite they give you, and eating with them creates discomfort because you can feel their resentment. It's different from verse 1—this person isn't powerful, just mean.
A father or wise teacher speaking to a young person
This continues the theme of social wisdom—learning to read people and situations. The Bible repeatedly teaches that how people treat others reveals their true character, and you should take that seriously when deciding whom to trust.
Refuse hospitality from someone marked by stinginess or self-centeredness, for such meals carry the poison of the host's own moral corruption.
The return to the meal-scene motif establishes a pedagogical pattern: multiple angles on discernment in dining relationships. The 'stingy man' (עין רע, ayin ra—literally 'evil eye,' evoking the biblical idiom for miserliness) represents not merely economic constraint but a spiritual deficiency. His 'delicacies' (מטעמים, matamim) carry precisely the deceptive quality warned in verse 3.
The wisdom teacher, establishing through repetition and variation the multi-dimensional stakes of social relationships mediated through food.
This teaching complements the New Testament's instruction regarding table fellowship and the spiritual significance of shared meals—establishing that eating together involves moral communion, not mere physical sustenance.
4Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
6Do not eat the bread of a stingy man, and do not crave his delicacies;
7for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
8You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
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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