Proverbs 10:16

A warning against the conclusion to seek wealth first of all, which men of lower natures might draw from Proverbs 10:15.

“Quaerenda pecunia primum est;

Virtus post nummos?”

Horace, Ephesians 1. i. 53.

Such an inference is met by the experience, that while wealth gotten by honest industry is not only, like inherited riches a defense, but also a blessing, the seeming profit (rather than “fruit”) of the wicked tends to further sin 1 Timothy 6:10, and so to punishment. Compare Romans 6:21.