Proverbs 23:6 Commentary and Bible Study

Once again the modern translations have some funny ideas about the evil eye. The ESV calls it ‘the man who is stingy’; it is hard to imagine how they arrived at that translation. The evil eye is interpreted for us in the Bible in Deuteronomy 15, a little later on in Proverbs 28, and of course in Matthew 6. The Lord Jesus Christ uses the evil eye in connection with covetousness building up. ‘You cannot serve God and mammon.’ We let Scripture interpret itself. This set of three of proverbs is about the danger of covetousness, but interestingly Solomon presents the lesson in the context of a hospitality illustration. There is an acquaintance who has laid on an extravagant feast and you are invited to it. As you look around, you see the enormous expense he has gone to, the lavish preparations and impressive provisions – everything is just so. This speaks of affluence and there are certainly those who would be deeply impressed and would want to imitate such a show of wealth for themselves. Do not covet the delicacies which he covets – not just food, but also his cars, his gadgets, his phones, his fancy laptop, his furnishings, his clothes and shoes, or may be his office equipment or whatever it is. People who are covetous, who must have chrome plated everything – do not go along with them and envy them and be drawn into their lifestyle. Again the trouble with this host is that he has a hidden agenda. Eat and drink, he says in a show of generosity, but it is a trap and you are being manipulated by a devious man. His liberality is a pretence and he has already calculated that he will get more out of you than he appears to give you. All these gifts might indicate that he has a real regard for his guests, but the truth is that he cares nothing about them. It is all a big show. Maybe he wants their admiration and praise – people will pay a lot for this – or maybe he wants something else in return which he is about to ask for. You shower him with complements and the exchange of words follows predictable lines of etiquette where the guest praise their host in overblown words, but you are wasting your breath if you join in, because your host is after something much greater than this. You have swallowed his food, but he has not let go of it even though it is now in your stomach. He will require it of you again in some form, and in the colourful language of Solomon, you have got nothing for free as you think, and you will have to vomit up and give back the thing you have swallowed even though you counted it as beyond your host’s ability to recover.