Texts in Conversation
Proverbs portrays the winking eye and secret gestures as signs of a deceitful person plotting harm, whose downfall comes swiftly. Sirach echoes this image, connecting the winking eye directly with evil eye belief and as a form of planning evil.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Proverbs 6:13
Hebrew Bible
11 and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man. 12 A worthless and wicked person walks around saying perverse things; 13 he winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, and points with his fingers; 14 he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart; he spreads contention at all times. 15 Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 27:22
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
20 Don’t pursue him, for he has gone far away, and has escaped like a gazelle out of the snare. 21 For a wound may be bound up, and after abuse there may be reconciliation; but he who reveals secrets is without hope. 22 One who winks the eye contrives evil things; and those who know him will keep their distance. 23 When you are present, he will speak sweetly, and will admire your words; but afterward he will twist his speech and set a trap in your words. 24 I have hated many things, but nothing like him. The Lord will hate him.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The eye or eyes express a variety of dispositions stirring in the heart: hostility (Job 16:9); hatred (Job 16:9; Psalm 35:19; Proverbs 6:13); arrogance (Proverbs 6:17, 21:4; 30:13; Psalm 101:5), humble trust (Psalm 123:2), innocence (Psalm 101:2); perverseness (Psalm 101:4), mockery (Proverbs 30:17), sorrow (Job 3:10); sadness (Psalm 6:7; 31:9; 88:9; Jeremiah 9:1, 18; Lamentations 1:16, 2:11); shamelessness (Sirach 26:11); pity (Deuteronomy 7:16; 13:8; 19:13, 21; 25:12); insatiability (Ecclesiastes 1:8; 4:8; Proverbs 27:20; 30:17); desire, lust (Psalm 73:7; Proverbs 17:24; Ezekiel 6:9; Sirach 26:9), and, as we shall see, envy, miserliness, and greed as manifested in an Evil Eye. A winking eye reveals a conniving heart: “Whoever winks his eye plans evil deeds (Sirach 27:22; compare Psalm 35:19; Proverbs 6:13; 10:10). Ophthalmodoulia, literally, “eye-service,” denotes the vice of flattery and obsequiousness (Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 3:22). Blindness, the non-functioning of the eyes and result of their “dimming,” represents darkness and gloom (Isaiah 29:18) and can be regarded as caused by God or the gods as punishment for arrogance or hybris or for casting an Evil Eye. The eye thus was the organ of seeing and witnessing, but also indicator of one’s state of physical health, emotions, intentions, and moral character ..."
John H. Elliott, Beware the Evil Eye: The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016), 3:41–42.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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