Proverbs 23:4
3 Do not crave that ruler’s delicacies, for that food is deceptive. 4 Do not wear yourself out to become rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself. 5 When you gaze upon riches, they are gone, for they surely make wings for themselves and fly off into the sky like an eagle!
Democritus Fragments
Democritus: A person shows good judgement if he is not grieved by what he does not have, but is pleased with what he does have. The desire for more destroys what one has, as with the dog in Aesop's fable. Democritus: Someone who contends with a superior ends up with a bad reputation. One should recognize that human life is feeble and short and heaped up with all sorts of evils and disasters, so as to aim at moderate acquisition and measure one's trouble against what is necessary. Democritus: Helplessness on the part of all is worse than the helpless of each individual; for there is left no hope of assistance.
LXX Proverbs 23:4
3 do not long for his delicacies, for these belong to a false life. 4 When poor, do not compare yourself to the rich, and stay remote in your insight. 5 If you set your eye toward him, it will fall nowhere at all; for a wing is made for him, just as for an eagle, and he returns to the house of his master.
Notes and References
"... LXX Proverbs 23:4 ... μὴ παρεκτείνου πένης ὢν πλουσίῳ, “if you are poor, do not compare yourself with a rich man” ... the middle imperative παρεκτείνου (literally “stretch yourself out alongside”) here means “measure yourself with” or “compare yourself with”. It is a relatively rare meaning of the verb, and finds a striking parallel in one of the fragments of the Presocratic philosopher Democritus, which reads τελευτᾶι γὰρ ἐς κακο- δοξίην [κακὴν] ὁ παρεκτεινόμενος τῶι κρέσσονι, “for he who compares himself with a more powerful man ends up in notoriety” (Demokritos B 238). It is not impossible that the Proverbs translator is here alluding to this fragment ..."
Wolters, Albert M. Septuagint Commentary Series: Proverbs (p. 225) Brill, 2020