So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Ver. 19. Which taketh away the life.] The greater wealth, the greater spoil awaits a man: as a tree with thick and large boughs, every man desires to lop him. Trithemius writeth that the Templars, at the request of Philip, King of France, were put down and extinct, upon the pretext of heresy; but indeed, because they were rich, and Philip sore longed after their possessions. Cyprus for its great wealth became a spoil to the Roman's auri sacra fames, &c. Dεινος και παντολμος της φιλοχρηματιας ερως. a Covetousness is daring and desperate: it rides without reins, as Balaam did after the wages of wickedness, "the mammon of iniquity." Luk 16:9
a Sixtus Rufus, Virgil, Isidor.