Jeremiah 17:11 [As] the partridge sitteth [on eggs], and hatcheth [them] not; [so] he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Ver. 11. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not.] Because either she is taken in an evil net, or the eggs are marred by the male, or otherwise, before they can be hatched.
So he that getteth riches, and not by right.] That crieth
“ Rem, rem, quocunque mode rem,
Unde habeat nemo quaerit, sed oportet habere. ”
Right or wrong, many are resolved to be rich, but are usually crossed or else cursed with a blessing for treasures of wickedness profit not, but righteousness delivereth from death. Pro 10:2 God sometimes giveth wealth to the wicked, as men put money into an earthen bottle, which, that they may get out again, they break the bottle in pieces.
Shall leave them in the midst of his days.] Either they shall leave him, or he them, to his unmedicinable grief and heart break. A poor fool God will be sure to make of him. He that trusteth in his riches, as every mammonist doth, shall fall; Pro 11:28 for although he bless himself, as well underlaid - and what should all such a one saith the world - yet the Lord abhorreth him, Psa 10:3 so that he many times cometh in the midst of his days to an untimely end, as did Judas, Ahab, Achan, Balaam, Ananias and Sapphira, &c. And thus many a rich wretch spinneth a fair thread to strangle himself, both temporally and eternally; he by his covetousness not only killeth others, Pro 1:19 but himself too.