——‘and money oppresses and leads them astray in all.’ The Alexandrine reading, however, makes quite consistent sense, and squares entirely with the rest of the passage. Bread is prepared for pleasure rather than support, wine rejoices hearts already merry——its real use is to cheer those who are faint with toil or sorrow; and silver, which one can neither eat nor drink, is preferred to bread and wine and everything else).
20 ¶ Curse not the king, no not in thy [¹]thought; and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
[¹] Or, conscience.
Also, even in thy conscience a king do not revile, and in secret places of the bed-chamber neither do thou revile the rich: for a bird of the heavens will carry out the rumour, and the swift one on wings shall tell the matter.
(20.) Also in thy understanding (occurs Daniel i. 4, 17; 2 Chronicles i. 10, 11, 12 only, and always with this meaning: all the ancient versions follow the idea contained in the LXX.’s συνείδησις, which would seem to give the notion that this curse was a reasonable, not a hasty one) a king (not the king, any king) do not curse; and in the innermost of thy bed-chambers do not either curse the rich person (the idea of cursing or reviling is of course here prominent), for a bird of the heavens shall cause to convey the voice (with את and the article, with ‘respect to that voice’ is the meaning——the rumour will get abroad in a mysterious way) and a lord of the winged ones (the Masorets wish to omit the article in ה֯כנפים) shall tell the matter (the LXX. note the emphasis given by ה and the articles by adding the pronoun σοῦ, which is simply a rendering ad sensum——’Treason, like murder, will out’).