diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ea052c6655..ff77262bfd 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -689,9 +689,10 @@ case $host in
 
          bdb_prefix=$($BREW --prefix berkeley-db4 2>/dev/null)
          qt5_prefix=$($BREW --prefix qt5 2>/dev/null)
-         if test x$bdb_prefix != x; then
-           CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I$bdb_prefix/include"
-           LIBS="$LIBS -L$bdb_prefix/lib"
+         if test x$bdb_prefix != x && test "x$BDB_CFLAGS" = "x" && test "x$BDB_LIBS" = "x"; then
+           dnl This must precede the call to BITCOIN_FIND_BDB48 below.
+           BDB_CFLAGS="-I$bdb_prefix/include"
+           BDB_LIBS="-L$bdb_prefix/lib -ldb_cxx-4.8"
          fi
          if test x$qt5_prefix != x; then
            PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$qt5_prefix/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"