Evil Eye

The evil eye in Scripture is a metaphorical expression for stinginess, envy, or malice — not the superstitious belief in a literal harmful gaze common in ancient Near Eastern folk religion. Deuteronomy 15:9 warns against the "evil eye" (KJV: "wicked thought") toward a poor brother in the sabbatical year, meaning a begrudging refusal to lend. Proverbs 23:6 counsels against eating with a stingy man who has an evil eye. Jesus uses the expression in Matthew 20:15 ("Is your eye evil because I am good?") to describe envy of others' generosity, and in Matthew 6:23 ("If your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness") to describe a mean-spirited or distorted moral vision that darkens one's whole outlook. The idiom is thus consistently connected to attitudes of covetousness, envy, and hardheartedness rather than magical harm.