”Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.“
Proverbs 23:6-8
The admonition is straightforward: do not eat food or satisfy any appetite from a person with an evil eye. Do not desire the delicacies that person presents. They will entice you and encourage you to gorge yourself on their goods but they are not interested in your welfare or happiness. What you take in will sour in your stomach and make you sick. Then you will lose your sweet words.
Let us hold this sequence for a moment and roll it around to get a better view of two specific topics which are critical to grasp if we are to understand what the passage is teaching us.
First, the man with an evil eye.
Second, losing our sweet words.
That hath an evil eye- the principle set forth is one who does not have your interest in mind but is using you for their purpose.
The definitions are numerous: someone using you, someone baiting you, someone desiring what you are or have, someone wishing to steer you, someone wanting to seduce you, someone taking advantage of you and even so far as wanting to ruin, enslave, derail or kill you… and more.
Lose thy sweet words- a Birds Eye view of the idea is you will lose the ability to speak for yourself or your words will lose their efficacy.
A few examples of the many ways this takes form would be to have your name defamed, or the continuance of your position and livelihood held ransom for your silence or scripted speech, your opinion altered to preserve your life, position, livelihood, family and so forth.
Another possible way to interpret the idea of losing your sweet words is that of a souring soul. When you grow bitter, hateful, angry and vengeful. Your words emanate from a rotten heart and are no longer sweet to the ear or salve to another’s soul.
As this passage follows close on the heels of a very similar passage, Proverbs 23:1-3, which advises us to eat sparingly around a Ruler, following a similar process – not desiring his dainties for they are deceitful meat. We see similarities and differences. When we eat with a Ruler we are to eat small amounts, in contrast, we are NOT to eat the food from the person with an evil eye. Both instances we need to know there is something else happening behind the scenes. Both instances we need to see the danger we are in proximity of. Both present things to be desired because they have a motive.
There is a story in the book of Daniel which illustrates the first instance. King Nebuchadnezzar captured Israel. He created a system to feed some of the choice captives in order to convert them into Babylonians. As we see, the plan worked. Daniel became a trusted advisor and was a member of the ruling court for many years. Through the decades, Daniel retained his honor, wisdom and moral character. It is notable he did not partake in eating the food the king presented. He chose to forego the dainty meats and ate pulse instead.
Through the course of Daniel’s life he lived outside of the other cabinet members circle. This is made evident in a couple different instances. For one, when the king built a golden statue and wanted everyone to bow down, Daniel was conspicuously absent. Perhaps the king knew Daniel would not bow and would most likely give him good reason why the king should not be making an idol of himself. Another time several other advisers planned to have Daniel killed to remove him from power. The plan ultimately backfired on them as Daniel remained after they were eaten by lions.
If we flip over to the book of Ester we see Haman invited to eat with the King and Queen Ester. Ester invited Haman because she had a hidden motive. Haman was leading a plot to have all of the Jews killed. As Ester was a Jewess, unbeknownst to the King and Haman, she was seeking to sway Haman from killing her people. Ultimately, Haman found himself being hung on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, Ester’s Uncle.
He unknowingly went to eat with someone that had her eyes set against his purpose and paid the ultimate price for his oversight.
In short, financially, emotionally or politically motivated persons present ways for you to satiate appetites of all sorts to get a handle on their cohorts and competitors. It is advisable to control your appetites preventing others from gaining a handle on you.
To be specific and use a term from Proverbs, the Simple pass on and are punished. When we see surface deep in a situation we are being simpletons. If we are to be wise we need to learn to see beyond the surface into the purpose of a situation. For instance:
To be as plain as possible, picture a mouse trap being set. The food placed on the trigger pad is specifically used to lure in a mouse for the purpose of eliminating the mouse. Yes, it is for the mouse to eat, or at least to draw it in thinking it will get to eat the bait, the real reason the food is available is to trap the prey.