Proverbs 21:17

17 A man of want [is] he who loves pleasure; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

Proverbs 21:17 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 21:17

He that loveth pleasure [shall be] a poor man
Or "sport"

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 and pastime, music and dancing, cards and dice, hunting and hawking, and other sensual gratifications; a man that indulges himself in these things, and spends his time and his money in such a way, is very likely to be a poor man, and generally is so in the issue; he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich;
that is, that loves them immoderately; otherwise in moderation they may be both loved and used; "wine" and "oil" are put for high living, luxurious feasts, costly entertainments; which being so, and continually made, will not suffer a man to be rich. The sense is, that an epicure, one that makes a god of his belly, that is both a winebibber and a glutton, that indulges to rich eating and drinking, in course lessens his substance, and leaves little for his heir: and this holds good with respect to spiritual as to temporal things; such persons are poor, and not rich in spiritual things, that indulge to carnal pleasure, and the gratification of their sensual appetite.
F3 (hxmv) "laetitiam", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schultens.

Proverbs 21:17 In-Context

15 [It is] a joy to the righteous to do justice, but dismay to those who do evil.

16 Whoever wanders from the way of understanding, in the assembly of the dead he will rest.

17 A man of want [is] he who loves pleasure; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

18 A ransom for the righteous is the wicked, and [the] faithless instead of the upright.

19 Better to live in a land of wilderness than [with] a wife of quarrels and provocation.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "fat"