The Value of Wealth

Introduction

Luke 16:9 LSB

9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves from the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will take you into the eternal dwellings.

Luke 16:12–13 LSB

12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

1 Timothy 6:17–19 LSB

17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

Proverbs 15:6 LSB

6 The house of the righteous has much treasure, But in the income of the wicked there is trouble.

Proverbs 15:6 BHW 4.18

6 בֵּ֣ית צַ֭דִּיק חֹ֣סֶן רָ֑ב וּבִתְבוּאַ֖ת רָשָׁ֣ע נֶעְכָּֽרֶת׃

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs Type: A-B Envelope Series (15:1–16:8)

Section 4 (15:6, 19). In Proverbs lasting prosperity is attained by high moral character and diligence. Using the “house” symbolically as the storehouse of one’s possessions (v. 6) and the “way” metaphorically for the success of one’s life (v. 19), Proverbs links righteousness to wealth (v. 6) and contrasts laziness with uprightness (and not simply with diligence, as we might expect from v. 19).

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Proverbs 6

6. Financial reward of righteousness

In the house of the righteous are great stores,

But the revenues of the wicked are ‘cut off.’

Antithetic, ternary. Cf. 10:2; 11:4; 15:27. Physical prosperity is represented as the reward of virtue. The Heb. reads lit.: the house of the righteous is a great store (or, treasure), but in the revenue (or, produce) of the wicked is a thing troubled (that is, brought into misfortune, calamity, or embarrassment, see Ju. 11:35; 1 Sam. 14:29; 1 K. 18:17); cf. 11:17, 29. This last expression is not here appropriate; calamity (RV. trouble) would be logically correct, though the Heb. does not admit of this translation; the antithesis favors the reading (found in one Greek text) destroyed, cut off; the prep. in should be removed from second cl., and inserted (as in RV.) in first clause. The form of expression of the couplet is drawn from agricultural life; the term revenue occurs in 3:9, 14; 8:19; 10:16; 14:4; 16:8; 18:20; Ex. 23:10; Jos. 5:12 al.—The Grk. has two renderings of the couplet, one differing slightly from the Heb., the other conformed to it; the former is probably the older, the latter a revision.

Commentary on the Old Testament Chapter 15

6 The house of the righteous is a great treasure-chamber;

But through the gain of the wicked comes trouble.

Prov. 15:6. The contrast shows that חֹסֵן does not here mean force or might (LXX, Syr., Targ., Jerome, and Venet.), which generally this derivative of the verb חָסַן never means, but store, fulness of possession, prosperity (Luther: in the house of the righteous are goods enough), in this sense (cf. 27:24) placing itself, not with the Arab. ḥasuna, to be firm, fastened (Aram. ḥsn, חֲסַן), but with Arab. khazan, to deposit, to lay up in granaries, whence our “Magazin.” חֹסֶן may indeed, like חַיִל, have the meaning of riches, and חֲסַן does actually mean, in the Jewish-Aram., to possess, and the Aphel אַחְסֵן, to take into possession (κρατεῖν); but the constant use of the noun חֹסֶן in the sense of store, with the kindred idea of laying up, e.g., Jer. 20:5, and of the Niph. נֶחְסַן, which means, Isa. 23:18, with נֶאֱצַר, “to be magazined,” gives countenance to the idea that חֹסֶן goes back to the primary conception, recondere, and is to be distinguished from חָסֹון, חֲסִין, and other derivatives after the fundamental conception. We may not interpret בֵּית, with Fleischer, Bertheau, and Zöckler, as accus.: in the house (cf. בֵּית, 8:2), nor prepositionally as chez = casa; but: “the house of the righteous is a great store,” equivalent to, the place of such. On the contrary, destruction comes by the gain of the wicked. It is impossible that נֶעְכָּרֶת can have the house as the subject (Löwenstein), for בַּיִת is everywhere mas. Therefore Abulwalîd, followed by Kimchi and the Venet. (ὄλεθρος), interprets נעכרת as subst., after the form of the Mishnic נִבְרֶכֶת, a pool, cf. נֶחֱרָצָה, peremptorily decided, decreed; and if we do not extinguish the ב of וּבִתְבוּאַת (the LXX according to the second translation of this doubly-translated distich, Syr., and Targ.), there remains then nothing further than to regard נעכרת either as subst. neut. overturned = overthrow (cf. such part. nouns as מוּסָדָה, מוּעָקָה, but particularly נְסִבָּה, 2 Chron. 10:15), or as impers. neut. pass.: it is overthrown = there is an overthrow, like נִשְׂעֲרָה, Ps. 50:3: it is stormed = a storm rages. The gain of the wicked has overthrow as its consequence, for the greed of gain, which does not shrink from unrighteous, deceitful gain, destroys his house, עֹכֵר בֵּיתֹו, v. 27 (vid., regarding עכר, 11:29). Far from enriching the house, such gain is the cause of nothing but ruin. The LXX, in its first version of this distich, reads, in 6a, בִּרְבֹות צֶדֶק (ἐν πλεοναζούσῳ δικαιοσύνῃ), and in 6b, וּבִתְבוּאֹת רָשָׁע נֶעְכָּר (and together with the fruit the godless is rooted out, ὁλόῤῥιζοι ἐκ γῆς ἀπολοῦνται); for, as Lagarde has observed, it confounds עכר with עקר (to root, privativ: to root up).