Proverbs 30 · a question people ask
"Give me neither poverty nor riches" (30:8). Is the prayer saying that riches are wrong?
The prayer asks for neither, and it gives its reasons in its own words: "lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God" (30:9). It names a danger on each side, and both dangers are about God: denying him, and dishonoring his name. What it asks for instead is "the food that is needful for me" (30:8). The verses don't say that anyone who has riches has denied God, or that anyone who is poor has stolen: they are one person's prayer about what he fears for himself. Moses warned of the first danger with the same Hebrew verb for full (Deuteronomy 8:12-14), and Proverbs 6 speaks of a hungry thief (Proverbs 6:30); the honest question on Proverbs 6 looks at that verse. These notes don't apply the prayer to anyone's money or work today.
The verses
““Two things I have asked of you. Don’t deny me before I die. Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
“lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;”
“Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry,”