Proverbs 23:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Labour not to be rich— In this admonition against covetousness, the wise man neither forbids all labour, nor a provident care, which he commends in other places; but only represents how vain it is to be over-solicitous, and to leave no thoughts or strength for any thing else: for so the first word is, Do not weary thyself to be rich; and in the next part of the verse he bids us desist: from our own understanding: meaning thereby, either that we should not wholly trust to it, though in the use of honest means; or, that we should not follow our own inventions, contrary to divine direction. Houbigant corrects the text, and renders it, nearly after the LXX, thus: "Do not attend, or associate thyself with a rich man, when thou thyself art poor." Archbishop Tillotson has a very lively and pleasing remark upon the next verse; "wherein (says he) the wise man expresses himself in such a manner, as if he would give us the picture of a rich man, who sits brooding over his estate till it is fledged, and, having gotten wings, flies away. But the whole tenor of the gospel teaches us, that we must die to the riches of this world, and to all things here below, and be alive to God alone."