Better the Poor Man Who Walks in Integrity
1 Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. 2 It isn’t good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty with one’s feet and miss the way. 3 The foolishness of man subverts his way; his heart rages against Yahweh. 4 Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend. 5 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free. 6 Many will entreat the favor of a ruler, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. 7 All the relatives of the poor shun him; how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone. 8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding shall find good. 9 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who utters lies shall perish. 10 Delicate living is not appropriate for a fool, much less for a servant to have rule over princes. 11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. It is his glory to overlook an offense. 12 The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. 13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father. A wife’s quarrels are a continual dripping. 14 House and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from Yahweh. 15 Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.
The run states three times, without softening it, that poor men lose their friends — and puts a value judgment at the head of it.
The opening verse sets the terms: Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. The comparison is between a poor honest man and a crooked one, and the book's verdict is placed first so that everything after it is read in its light.
What follows is three separate observations about poverty, and they are among the most unsparing sentences in Scripture. Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend. Everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. And then the fullest: All the relatives of the poor shun him; how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.
The last clause is the one that hurts. He is not merely dropped; he goes after them, asking, and finds nobody there. The collection records this without a word of moral comment, and the absence of comment is deliberate. It has already said that despising a neighbor is sin and that kindness to the needy honors God Proverbs 14:31. Here it simply reports what happens. A reader who has been poor recognizes it, and a reader who has not is told.
Two verses concern haste and both are practical. It isn't good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty with one's feet and miss the way. Zeal is not disparaged. It is paired with knowledge and found insufficient alone. And the second half turns it into a walking image: a man moving quickly enough to go past the turning.
One verse locates the cause of a familiar bitterness with unusual precision: The foolishness of man subverts his way; his heart rages against Yahweh. He ruins his own road, and then he is angry with God about it. The sequence is stated flatly and in that order, and the collection offers no further comment on it.
And one verse is pure grace in the middle of the run: It is his glory to overlook an offense. Not to endure it, not to forgive it after a process — to pass over it, and the passing over is called the man's glory.
settled What this mark means