The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

Note – All words or phrases found in quotation marks are actual parts of the Hebrew or Greek definition(s).

¹⁵ The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶ The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.

Step on People Step on Self

Wealth itself is not evil or a bad thing. However, dependence upon wealth instead of God is shaky ground and evil in the sight of God, for we are only to be dependent upon the one thing that cannot be taken away or that we cannot lose, that is God.

An individual can be materially rich and morally poor, the latter definitely being a choice a person, whether rich or poor, makes.

Let us look at the meaning from the Hebrew language of a few words found in verse fifteen, reflecting on how those meanings would relate, in context, to this verse of Scripture and the attitudes of some, not all, but some, rich people. Please not the underlined portions.

“strong” 5797.=

עֹז ˓ôz, oze; or (fully)

עוֹז ˓ôwz, oze; from 5810; strength in various applications (force, security, majesty, praise):— boldness, loud, might, power, strength, strong.

5810. עָזַז ˓âzaz, aw-zaz’; a prim. root; to be stout (lit. or fig.):— harden, impudent, prevail, strengthen (self), be strong.

‘impudent” is defined by the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as:

1 obsolete : lacking modesty
2 : marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others : INSOLENT

“city” 7151.=

קִרְיָה qiryâh, kir-yaw’; from 7136 in the sense of flooring, i.e. building; a city:— city.

There are those individuals who are more dependent on their money than they are God. There are those who love their money more than God. Love of that money is the cause of, and an open door for, many evils in their life.

1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV-AV)

¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

People who “love” their money often depend on their money as their “strong city” manifested as a “force” to get what they want in life, as “security” in life, a cloak of “majesty” for which they should be admired, and when things do not go their way, they are often found to possess great “boldness” be “loud” exerting their “might, power, and strength” that they buy with their money. In their impudent behavior they are often found to be “lacking modesty, and marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others.”

Their sense of self-importance is misplaced however because it is not their character, morality, rightness, or goodness that gets them their way or draws people to them but instead it is their money that gets them their way, gets them people’s attention, attention which they often mistake for respect, and their relationships too often become about what they can do for the other person instead of being a relationship built on sincere interest in the person, care for, respect of, and love for the person who has the riches. Relationships built on money end when the money disappears.

They that mistakenly make their money the foundation of their life, their “flooring” and their protection, their “building” in a storm often come to find out that money cannot save you from “life” happening to you. They might fall ill and cease to be able to enjoy their money, only for everything they worked for to be left behind to be enjoyed by other people or they might, as is so often seen to happen, lose everything they have overnight, all the money gone – all the power and protection gone. Then what? If you have depended on your money for power, protection, strength, and comfort it is going to be a very lonely scary place to be in life.

How do you discern godly wealth or riches from evil wealth or riches? In many ways, one of which is by the manner of care and treatment those with the money treat those individuals under them who are making the money possible for them, their worker.

“destruction” 4288.=

מְחִתָּה m^echittâh, mekh-it-taw’; from 2846; prop. a dissolution; concr. a ruin, or (abstr.) consternation:— destruction, dismaying, ruin, terror.

“consternation” is defined by the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as:

amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion

When an individual of wealth and riches mistreats or oppresses those who work for or service them in the advancement of their own gain their riches are of an evil source, not a godly source. Those people who tear down individual so they can line their pockets with a few more dollars suffer from a ‘love of money that is the root of all evil’ for both them and their family. The day will come when the price for such ruthlessness will have to be paid!

Now turning our attention to verse sixteen. A person’s “labour” and the resulting wealth that comes from that labor, produced in a godly or ungodly manner, will bear fruit in how it is multiplied, what it spent on, how it used, etc. To “tendeth” toward life according to the definition in the Hebrew use is to ‘“err” on the side of using one’s wealth in a godly manner,’ with godly “wisdom” resulting in the “prolonging” of the wealth and the “prolonging” of the life of the holder of said wealth. Whereas you can see the fruit of sin found in the manner in which the wicked obtain their wealth, use their wealth, the sinful ways they spend their wealth, and the decay of life and morality that comes with the wicked obtainment of wealth.

If a person could choose how to obtain and how to use their wealth, both of which a person can do, why not choose a manner that breeds life, godliness, and goodness instead of one that breeds sin, wickedness, ultimately loss and death. Again, remember you can be materially rich but morally poor, it is your choice – morality or immorality.

Throughout this study, if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.