Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

22. Proverbs of Solomon

¹ A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

² Rich and poor have this in common:
The LORD is the Maker of them all.

³ The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

⁴ Humility is the fear of the LORD;
its wages are riches and honor and life.

⁵ In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,
but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.

⁶ Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

⁷ The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is slave to the lender.

⁸ Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity,
and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

⁹ The generous will themselves be blessed,
for they share their food with the poor.

¹⁰ Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife;
quarrels and insults are ended.

¹¹ One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace
will have the king for a friend.

¹² The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge,
but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³ The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside!
I’ll be killed in the public square!”

¹⁴ The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit;
a man who is under the LORD’s wrath falls into it.

¹⁵ Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

¹⁶ One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

Thirty Sayings of the Wise

Saying 1

    ¹⁷ Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise;
   apply your heart to what I teach,
¹⁸ for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart
   and have all of them ready on your lips.
¹⁹ So that your trust may be in the LORD,
   I teach you today, even you.
²⁰ Have I not written thirty sayings for you,
   sayings of counsel and knowledge,
²¹ teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth,
   so that you bring back truthful reports
   to those you serve?

Saying 2

    ²² Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
   and do not crush the needy in court,
²³ for the LORD will take up their case
   and will exact life for life.

Saying 3

    ²⁴ Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,
   do not associate with one easily angered,
²⁵ or you may learn their ways
   and get yourself ensnared.

Saying 4

    ²⁶ Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge
   or puts up security for debts;
²⁷ if you lack the means to pay,
   your very bed will be snatched from under you.

Saying 5

²⁸ Do not move an ancient boundary stone
set up by your ancestors.

Saying 6

    ²⁹ Do you see someone skilled in their work?
   They will serve before kings;
   they will not serve before officials of low rank.

1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

Here are two things which are more valuable and which we should covet more than great riches:—1. To be well spoken of: A name (that is, a good name, a name for good things with God and good people) is rather to be chosen than great riches; that is, we should be more careful to do that by which we may get and keep a good name than that by which we may raise and increase a great estate. Great riches bring great cares with them, expose men to danger, and add no real value to a man. A fool and a knave may have great riches, but a good name makes a man easy and safe, supposes a man wise and honest, redounds to the glory of God, and gives a man a greater opportunity of doing good. By great riches we may relieve the bodily wants of others, but by a good name we may recommend religion to them. 2. To be well beloved, to have an interest in the esteem and affections of all about us; this is better than silver and gold. Christ has neither silver nor gold, but he grew in favour with God and man, Luke ii. 52. This should teach us to look with a holy contempt upon the wealth of this world, not to set our hearts upon that, but with all possible care to think of those things that are lovely and of good report, Phil. iv. 8.

2 The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.

Note, 1. Among the children of men divine Providence has so ordered it that some are rich and others poor, and these are intermixed in societies: The Lord is the Maker of both, both the author of their being and the disposer of their lot. The greatest man in the world must acknowledge God to be his Maker, and is under the same obligations to be subject to him that the meanest is; and the poorest has the honour to be the work of God's hands as much as the greatest. Have they not all one Father? Mal. ii. 10; Job xxxi. 15. God makes some rich, that they may be charitable to the poor, and others poor, that they may be serviceable to the rich; and they have need of one another, 1 Cor. xii. 21. He make some poor, to exercise their patience, and contentment, and dependence upon God, and others rich, to exercise their thankfulness and beneficence. Even the poor we have always with us; they shall never cease out of the land, nor the rich neither. 2. Notwithstanding the distance that is in many respects between rich and poor, yet in most things they meet together, especially before the Lord, who is the Maker of them all, and regards not the rich more than the poor, Job xxxiv. 19. Rich and poor meet together at the bar of God's justice, all guilty before God, concluded under sin, and shapen in iniquity, the rich as much as the poor; and they meet at the throne of God's grace; the poor are as welcome there as the rich. There is the same Christ, the same scripture, the same Spirit, the same covenant of promises, for them both. There is the same heaven for poor saints that there is for rich: Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham. And there is the same hell for rich sinners that there is for poor. All stand upon the same level before God, as they do also in the grave. The small and great are there.