Paragraph 23:6–8 Saying 8

23:6

This verse contains two parallel commands to not eat with a stingy person if he invites you to a meal. Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

6a
Do not eat the bread of a stingy man,

6b
and do not crave his delicacies ;

The parts in the second line have a more intense or specific meaning than the parallel parts in the first line.

23:6a

Do not eat the bread of a stingy man: The Hebrew idiom that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a stingy man refers to a person who does not like to share what he has with others. The context of this saying may be a situation where cultural obligations have forced a selfish or stingy person to offer hospitality. In such a situation, the young man should not accept his invitation to eat with him. Some other ways to translate this command are:

Do not go to dine with a miserly person (Revised English Bible)
-or-
Don’t accept an invitation to eat a selfish person’s food (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Don’t eat at the table of a stingy person (Good News Translation)

23:6b

do not crave his delicacies: This clause is almost identical to 23:3a. See how you translated the same clause there. Here the clause occurs in the second line rather than the first, so it may not be possible to use the same wording.

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