Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that, i.e. look upon it with earnestness and greedy desire, employing the eyes of thy mind and body about it. Which is not; which hath no solid and settled being; which is ours to have, but not to hold; which is always upon the wing, and ofttimes gone in the twinkling of an eye, so that the owner is frequently at a loss, and cannot tell whether he hath his estate, or whether he hath lost it. They fly away as an eagle, swiftly, strongly, and irrevocably. We quickly lose the sight and possession of them. Their flying away from us is elegantly opposed to our eyes being set, or, as it is in the Hebrew, flying upon them, in the beginning of the verse.
Related Commentaries of Proverbs 23:5
Proverbs 23:5
5 Wilt thou seta thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.