Responsible use of wealth.
Lesson Four.
Envy and greed
Wealth is not the right thing for the niggardly,
and what use are possessions to the covetous?
Whoever hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others,
and others will live sumptuously on his riches.
If someone is mean to himself, whom does he benefit?
He does not even enjoy what is his own.
No one is meaner than the person who is mean to himself,
this is how his wickedness repays him.
If he does good, he does it unintentionally,
and in the end he himself reveals his wickedness.
Wicked the person who has an envious eye,
averting his face, and careless of others' lives.
The eye of the grasping is not content with what he has,
greed shrivels up the soul.
The miser is grudging of bread,
there is famine at his table.
My child, treat yourself as well as you can afford,
and bring worthy offerings to the Lord.
Remember that death will not delay,
and that you have never seen Sheol's contract.
Be kind to your friend before you die,
treat him as generously as you can afford.
Do not refuse yourself the good things of today,
do not let your share of what is lawfully desired pass you by,
Will you not have to leave your fortune to another,
and the fruit of your labor to be divided by lot?
Give and receive, enjoy yourself -
there are no pleasures to be found in Sheol.
Like clothes, every body will wear out,
the age-old law is, 'Everyone must die.'
Like foliage growing on a bushy tree,
some leaves falling, others growing,
so are the generations of flesh and blood:
one dies, another is born.
Every achievement rots away and perishes,
and with it goes its author.
