Proverbs 22

A good reputation is worth choosing over great riches, and being well liked is better than silver and gold.

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

2Rich people and poor people have this in common: the LORD made them all.

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

3A careful person sees trouble coming and takes cover, but a person with no experience walks straight on and pays for it.

3A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Note"Simple" in Proverbs is not an insult about intelligence. It is a standing term for the untrained person, young, inexperienced, easily talked into things, and still able to learn. "Prudent" is its opposite: someone who has learned to read a situation.

4What comes from being humble and respecting the LORD is riches, honor, and life.

4By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.

Note"The fear of the LORD" is a fixed phrase running through Proverbs; it means reverence and awe rather than fright. The Hebrew line is compressed and can be read two ways: humility and the fear of the LORD as two things that bring riches, honor and life, or the fear of the LORD as what humility actually consists of.

5Thorns and traps lie along the road of a crooked person. Whoever guards his own life stays far away from them.

5Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.

Note"Froward" is old English for twisted or perverse, a person who goes crooked rather than straight. It has nothing to do with being forward or bold.

6Teach a child the way he ought to live, and when he is old he will not turn away from it.

6Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "train a boy according to his way," and has long been understood two ways: according to the way he ought to go, or according to his own bent, his particular character and stage of life. The verb translated "train up" is elsewhere used of dedicating a new house to its use.

7The rich rule over the poor, and anyone who borrows becomes a servant to the one who lends.

7The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

NoteDebt slavery was a real institution, not a figure of speech. A person who could not repay could be bound to work off the debt for the lender, and children could be handed over in the same way.

8Whoever plants wrongdoing will harvest trouble, and the stick he used in his anger will be broken.

8He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.

Note"Vanity" in the King James Version means emptiness or nothingness, not conceit. The "rod of his anger" is the stick he uses to beat others, standing for his power to do harm.

9A generous person will be blessed, because he shares his food with the poor.

9He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "good of eye." A good eye meant a generous one; an evil eye, elsewhere in Proverbs, meant a grudging or stingy one. It is not about eyesight or the evil eye of later folklore.

10Throw out the person who mocks others, and the fighting will go with him. Quarrels and insults will stop.

10Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.

NoteThe "scorner" or mocker is one of Proverbs' recurring character types, alongside the wise, the fool and the simple. He is defined not by ignorance but by refusing correction and ridiculing anyone who offers it.

11Whoever loves a pure heart and speaks with kindness will have the king as a friend.

11He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.

12The LORD's eyes watch over knowledge and keep it safe, but he ruins the words of the person who breaks faith.

12The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.

13The lazy man says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"

13The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

NoteLions did live in the Jordan valley and the scrubland of ancient Israel, so the danger was not imaginary in open country, but not in the streets of a town in daylight.

14The words of another man's wife are a deep pit. The man the LORD is angry with falls into it.

14The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

Note"Strange women" does not mean odd or foreign. The Hebrew means a woman who belongs to another man, outside the boundary of one's own marriage. The same phrasing appears throughout the early chapters of Proverbs.

15Foolishness is tied up inside a child's heart, but correction with the stick drives it far away from him.

15Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

NoteThe rod is the household stick used in disciplining a child. The same Hebrew word covers a shepherd's staff and a ruler's scepter.

16Whoever crushes the poor to get more for himself, and whoever gives gifts to the rich, will both end up poor.

16He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

NoteThe second half of this proverb is terse in Hebrew and disputed. It can be read as saying both the oppressor and the flatterer of the rich end in poverty, or that giving gifts to the already-rich is itself a straight loss.

17Lean in and listen to the words of the wise, and set your mind on what I am teaching you.

17Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.

NoteA new collection begins here and runs to 24:22, headed "the words of the wise", no longer the short two-line proverbs of the previous chapters but longer instructions addressed to a pupil. This section closely parallels an Egyptian teaching text, the Instruction of Amenemope, written for young men entering royal service.

18It is a good thing to keep these words inside you, and to have them ready on your lips.

18For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.

19I am teaching you today so that you will put your trust in the LORD. Yes, I mean you.

19That thy trust may be in the LORD, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.

20Have I not written fine sayings for you, full of advice and knowledge,

20Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "excellent things" is uncertain, and ancient copies differ. Read one way it means "formerly" or "in time past"; another, "officers" or "noble things"; another, "thirty", which would match the thirty chapters of the Egyptian instruction text this section resembles.

21to show you that these words are true and can be relied on, so you can bring back a true answer to the people who sent you?

21That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?

NoteThe person being taught appears to be a young man in someone's service, sent out with a message and expected to come back with a dependable report, the setting of a court or household official in training.

22Do not rob a poor man just because he is poor, and do not crush a person who is already suffering when his case comes up at the city gate.

22Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

NoteThe gate was the open area just inside a city's wall where elders heard lawsuits, contracts were witnessed and business was done. It was the town's courtroom, and "in the gate" marks this as a legal wrong, not just a private one.

23The LORD himself will argue their case, and he will take the life of those who took from them.

23For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

Note"Plead their cause" is courtroom language, continuing the picture of the previous verse: the LORD takes the part of a legal advocate for people who have no one to speak for them.

24Do not make friends with a man who is quick to anger, and do not spend your time with a man with a hot temper.

24Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:

25If you do, you will pick up his habits, and you will walk into a trap you set for yourself.

25Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

26Do not be one of those people who shake hands on a promise to cover someone else's debt.

26Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.

NoteStriking or clasping hands was the gesture that sealed a binding guarantee, standing surety, promising to pay another person's debt if they defaulted. It carried the force of a signature.

27If you have no money to pay it, why should the lender take the bed out from under you?

27If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

NoteA creditor could seize a defaulter's property. Bedding was often the last thing a poor household owned, and Israelite law required that a cloak taken as a pledge be returned before nightfall so its owner could sleep in it.

28Do not move an old boundary stone that your ancestors set in place.

28Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.

NoteBoundary stones marked the edge of family land, which passed down through generations and was not meant to be sold off permanently. Quietly shifting a stone stole a neighbor's land and was almost impossible to prove afterward.

29Do you see a man who is skilled at his work? He will serve in the presence of kings. He will not work for nobodies.

29Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.

Note"Mean men" in 1611 English meant men of low rank or no standing, not cruel men. "Stand before" is the idiom for serving in someone's presence, being on the staff of a king rather than of nobodies.