So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

So the wage of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.

So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; who taketh away the life of its owners.

So are the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which takes away the life of the owners thereof.

Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners.

Thus, the ways of all those who are greedy seize the souls of those who possess.

Not robbery only, but all forms of covetousness are destructive of true life.

Which taketh away the life - A covetous man is in effect, and in the sight of God, a murderer; he wishes to get all the gain that can accrue to any or all who are in the same business that he follows - no matter to him how many families starve in consequence. This is the very case with him who sets up shop after shop in different parts of the same town or neighborhood, in which he carries on the same business, and endeavors to undersell others in the same trade, that he may get all into his own hand.

So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] taketh away (p) the life of the owners thereof.
(p) By which he concludes that the covetous man is a murderer.

So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain,.... That is set upon getting riches in an unlawful way, by robberies and murder; his ways will end in the loss of his own blood and life, and in the loss of his immortal soul; this will be what his wicked ways and course of life will bring him to, and what will his gain profit him then? it would be of no use and service to him could he have gained the whole world;
which taketh away the life of the owners thereof: or who, even every one of those that are greedy of gain, and will be rich at any rate; such stick not to take away the life of the proper owners of that gain, or money they are greedy of, in order to get it into their own possession; and such wicked practices cannot fail of meeting with a just recompence of reward: or "which" covetous gain, or gain gotten in such a wicked manner, will be the cause of the life of the injurious masters and wrong possessors of it being taken away from them, either by the hand of the civil magistrate, or by God himself. These sins of robbery and murder are particularly instanced in, not only because other sins lead unto them, as sabbath breaking, drunkenness, and lewdness, and issue in temporal and eternal ruin; but because they were very common among the Jews at the time that Wisdom, or Christ, was here on earth: to which time the whole passage refers, as appears from the following verses; and that those sins were frequent then is manifest both from Scripture; see Matthew 27:38; and from the confessions of the Jews, who say (z) that forty years before the destruction of the temple the sanhedrim were obliged to remove from place to place, because that murderers increased, and they could not judge and condemn them, for fear of being murdered themselves; and it was because of this great increase they were obliged to stop the beheading of the red heifer (a).
(z) T. Bab. Avodah Zarah, fol. 8. 2. (a) Misnah Sotah, c. 9. s. 9.

An epiphonema:
Such is the lot of all who indulge in covetousness;
It takes away the life of its owner.
This language is formed after Job 8:13. Here, as there, in the word ארחות, the ideas of action and issue, manner of life and its result, are all combined. בּצע signifies properly that which is cut off, a piece, fragment broken off, then that which one breaks off and takes to himself - booty, gain, particularly unjust gain (Proverbs 28:16). בּצע בּצע is he who is greedy or covetous. The subject to יקּח is בּצע, covetousness, πλεονεξία (see Isaiah 57:17). As Hoses, Job 4:11, says of three other things that they taken away לב, the understanding (νοῦς), so here we are taught regarding unjust gain or covetousness, that it takes away נפשׁ, the life (ψυχή) (לקח נפשׁ, to take away the life, 1-Kings 19:10; Psalm 31:14). בּעליו denotes not the possessor of unjust gain, but as an inward conception, like בעל אף, Proverbs 22:24, cf. Proverbs 23:2; Proverbs 24:8; Ecclesiastes 10:11, him of whom covetousness is the property. The sing. נפשׁ does not show that בּעליו is thought of as sing.; cf. Proverbs 22:23, Ps. 34:23; but according to Proverbs 3:27; Proverbs 16:22; Ecclesiastes 8:8, this is nevertheless probable, although the usage without the suffix is always בּעל בּצע, and not בּעלי (of plur. intens. בּעלים).

Greedy - That seeks gain by wicked practices.