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Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

New Revised Standard

Proverbs 23:4

Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Conceit;   Confidence;   Covetousness;   False Confidence;   Riches;   Thompson Chain Reference - Social Duties;   Temperance;   Temperance-Intemperance;   The Topic Concordance - Consideration;   Desire;   Labor;   Wealth;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Riches;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Wealth;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Heart;   Pardon;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Trade and Commerce;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Dainties;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Don’t wear yourself out to get rich;because you know better, stop!
Hebrew Names Version
Don't weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
King James Version
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
English Standard Version
Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.
New American Standard Bible
Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; Stop dwelling on it.
New Century Version
Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; be wise enough to control yourself.
Amplified Bible
Do not weary yourself [with the overwhelming desire] to gain wealth; Cease from your own understanding of it.
World English Bible
Don't weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Trauaile not too much to be rich: but cease from thy wisdome.
Legacy Standard Bible
Do not weary yourself to gain wealth,Because of your understanding, cease!
Berean Standard Bible
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
Contemporary English Version

-7-

Give up trying so hard to get rich.
Complete Jewish Bible
Don't exhaust yourself in pursuit of wealth; be smart enough to desist.
Darby Translation
Weary not thyself to become rich; cease from thine own intelligence:
Easy-to-Read Version
Don't ruin your health trying to get rich. If you are smart, you will give it up.
George Lamsa Translation
Do not quarrel with a rich man; but keep away from him wisely.
Good News Translation

-7-

Be wise enough not to wear yourself out trying to get rich.
Lexham English Bible
Do not tire in order to become rich; out of your understanding, may you desist.
Literal Translation
Do not labor to be rich, cease from your own understanding.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Take not ouer greate trauayle and labor to be riche, bewarre of soch a purpose.
American Standard Version
Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.
Bible in Basic English
Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Weary not thyself to be rich; cease from thine own wisdom.
King James Version (1611)
Labour not to bee rich: cease from thine owne wisedome.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Take not ouer great trauayle to be riche, beware of suche a purpose.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If thou art poor, measure not thyself with a rich man; but refrain thyself in thy wisdom.
English Revised Version
Weary not thyself to be rich; cease from thine own wisdom.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Nyle thou trauele to be maad riche, but sette thou mesure to thi prudence.
Update Bible Version
Don't weary yourself to be rich; Cease from your own wisdom.
Webster's Bible Translation
Labor not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.
New English Translation
Do not wear yourself out to become rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.
New King James Version
Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!
New Living Translation
Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit.
New Life Bible
Do not work hard to be rich. Stop trying to get things for yourself.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Do not toil to get wealth, of thine own understanding, forbear:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.
Revised Standard Version
Do not toil to acquire wealth; be wise enough to desist.
Young's Literal Translation
Labour not to make wealth, From thine own understanding cease, Dost thou cause thine eyes to fly upon it? Then it is not.
THE MESSAGE
7 Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; restrain yourself! Riches disappear in the blink of an eye; wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it.

Contextual Overview

4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. 5 When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes wings to itself, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Labour: Proverbs 28:20, John 6:27, 1 Timothy 6:8-10

cease: Proverbs 3:5, Proverbs 26:12, Isaiah 5:21, Romans 11:25, Romans 12:16

Reciprocal: Genesis 34:23 - General Proverbs 1:19 - every Proverbs 20:21 - gotten Proverbs 28:11 - rich Ecclesiastes 1:3 - profit Ecclesiastes 7:16 - neither Ezekiel 28:4 - General Luke 12:15 - Take

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Genesis 17:8
And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."
Genesis 23:12
Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.
Genesis 23:13
He said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, "If you only will listen to me! I will give the price of the field; accept it from me, so that I may bury my dead there."
Genesis 23:16
Abraham agreed with Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.
Genesis 47:9
Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my earthly sojourn are one hundred thirty; few and hard have been the years of my life. They do not compare with the years of the life of my ancestors during their long sojourn."
Genesis 49:30
in the cave in the field at Machpelah, near Mamre, in the land of Canaan, in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
Leviticus 25:23
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.
1 Chronicles 29:15
For we are aliens and transients before you, as were all our ancestors; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Labour not to be rich,.... In an immoderate over anxious way and manner, to a weariness, as the word u signifies, and even as to gape for breath men ought to labour, that they may have wherewith to support themselves and families, and give to others and: if they can, lay up for their children; but then persons should not toil and weary themselves to heap up riches when they know not who shall gather them and much less make use of indirect and illicit methods to obtain them; resolving to be rich at any rate: rather men should labour for durable riches, lay up treasure in heaven, seek those things which are above, and labour to be accepted of God both here and hereafter; which only is in Christ. The Targum is,

"do not draw nigh to a rich man;''

and so the Syriac version; to which agree the Septuagint and Arabic versions;

cease from thine own wisdom; worldly wisdom in getting; riches, as if this was the highest point of wisdom; do not be always laying schemes, forming projects, inventing new things in order to get money; or do not depend upon thine own wisdom and understanding and expect to be rich by means thereof; for bread is not always to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, Ecclesiastes 9:11. The Targum is,

"but by thine understanding depart from him;''

the rich man; and to the same purpose the Syriac and Arabic versions.

u אל תיגע "ne fatiges", Mercerus, Junius Tremellius "ne hiascas", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Cease from thine own wisdom - i. e., “Cease from the use of what is in itself most excellent, if it only serves to seek after wealth, and so ministers to evil.” There is no special contrast between “thine own wisdom” and that given from above, though it is of course implied that in ceasing from his own prudence the man is on the way to attain a higher wisdom.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 23:4. Labour not to be rich — Let not this be thy object. Labour to provide things honest in the sight of God and all men; and if thou get wealth, do not forget the poor, else God's curse will be a canker even in thy gold.

Cease from thine own wisdom. — בינתך binathecha, thy own understanding or prudence. The world says, "Get rich if thou canst, and how thou canst." Rem, si possis, recte; si non, quocunque modo rem; "Get a fortune honestly if thou canst; but if not, get one at all events." This is the devil's counsel, and well it is followed; but Solomon says, and God says, "Cease from thine own counsel." Thou hast an immortal soul, and shalt shortly appear before God. Lay up treasure for heaven, and be rich towards God.


 
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