Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 14:20
The poor is hated even of his own neighbor: but the rich [hath] many friends.
The maxim, jarring as it is, represents the generalization of a wide experience; but the words which follow Pro 14:21 show that it is not to be taken by itself. In spite of all the selfish morality of mere prudence, the hearer is warned that to despise his neighbor (Christians must take the word in all the width given to it by the parable of the Good Samaritan) is to sin. The fullness of blessing comes on him who sees in the poor the objects of his mercy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 14:20
But the rich hath many friends.
Friends in prosperity
Ah! do not be puffed up by any of the successes of this life, do not be spoiled by the number of liveried coachmen that may stop at your door, or the sweep of the long trail across the imported tapestry. Many of those who come to your house are fawning parasites. They are not so much in love with you as they are in love with your house and your successes. You move down to 320, Low Water Mark Street, and see how many of their carriages will halt at your door. Now you can hardly count those brilliant carriages on your ten fingers, but you move next year down to 320 in Low Water Mark Street, and you can count them all on your nose! Timon of Athens was a wealthy lord, and all the mighty men and women of the land came and sat at his banquet, proud to sit there, and they drank deep to his health. They sent him costly presents. He sent costlier presents back again, and there was no man in all the land so admired as Timon of Athens, the wealthy lord. But after a while, through lavish hospitality or through betrayal, he lost everything. Then he sent for help to those lords whom he had banqueted and to whom he had given large sums of money–Lucullus, Lucius, Sempronius, and Ventidias. Did those lords send any help to him? Oh, no. Lucullus said when he was applied to, Well, I thought that Timon would come down; he was too lavish; let him suffer for his recklessness. Lucius said, I would be very glad to help Timon, but I have made large purchases and my means are all absorbed. And one lord sent one excuse, and another lord sent another excuse. But to the astonishment of everybody, after awhile Timon proclaimed another feast. These lords said to themselves, Why, either Timon has had a good turn of fortune or he has been deceiving us–testing our love. And so they all flocked to the banquet, apologetic for seeming lukewarmness. The guests were all seated at the table, and Timon ordered the covers to be lifted. The covers lifted, there was nothing under them but smoking hot water. Then Timon said to the guests, Dogs, lap! Lap, dogs! And under the terrible irony they fled the room, while Timon pursued them with his anathema, calling them fools of fortune, destroyers of happiness under a mask, hurling at the same time the pictures and the chalices after them. Oh, I would not want to make you over-suspicions in the days of your success; but I want you to understand right well there is a vast difference between the popularity of Timon the prosperous and Timon the unfortunate. I want you to know there is a vast difference in the number of people who admire a man when he is going up and the number of people who admire him when he is going down. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. But the rich hath many friends.] Many who speak to him the language of friendship; but if they profess friendship because he is rich, there is not one real friend among them. There is a fine saying of Cicero on this subject: Ut hirundines festivo tempore praesto sunt, frigore pulsae recedunt: ita falsi amici sereno tempore praesto sunt: simul atque fortunae hiemem viderint, evolant omnes. – Lib. iv., ad Herenn. “They are like swallows, who fly off during the winter, and quit our cold climates; and do not return till the warm season: but as soon as the winter sets in, they are all off again.” So Horace: –
Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos:
Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.
“As long as thou art prosperous, thou shalt have many friends: but who of them will regard thee when thou hast lost thy wealth?”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Is hated, i.e. despised and abandoned, as hateful persons and things are.
His own neighbour; strictly so called, who is nearest to him, either by habitation or by relation, and therefore most obliged to love and help him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. This sad but true picture ofhuman nature is not given approvingly, but only as a fact.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The poor is hated even of his own neighbour,…. As well as of strangers; that is, he is shy of him; he does not care to take any notice of him, or be friendly with him, lest he should be burdensome to him. Poverty brings a man into contempt and disgrace; the same man, in affluence and indigence, is respected or disrespected: this is true, as Gersom observes, of a man that is poor, whether in money or in knowledge, in his purse or in his understanding;
but the rich [hath] many friends; or, “many [are] the lovers of the rich” r: for the sake of their riches; either for the sake of honour or profit, or because the rich want nothing of them, or because they themselves may gain something by them: this also is observed by the above Jewish commentator to be true of the rich in substance or in wisdom; but the former sense is best; for a wise man, if poor in the world, is but little regarded.
r “et amatores divitiis spissi”, Schultens; “dilectores autem divitis multi sunt”, Piscator. “Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos”, Ovid. Trist. Eleg. 8. “Dat census honores, census amicitias”, ib. Fasti, l. 1. so Phocylides, v. 925, 926.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Three proverbs on the hatred of men:
20 The poor is hated even by his neighbour;
But of those who love the rich there are many.
This is the old history daily repeating itself. Among all people is the saying and the complaint:
Donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos ,
Tempora si fuerint nubilia solus eris .
(Note: Ovid, Trist. i. 8.)
The Book of Proverbs also speaks of this lamentable phenomenon. It is a part of the dark side of human nature, and one should take notice of it, so that when it goes well with him, he may not regard his many friends as all genuine, and when he becomes poor, he may not be surprised by the dissolution of earlier friendship, but may value so much the higher exceptions to the rule. The connection of the passive with of the subject (cf. Pro 13:13), as in the Greek with the dative, is pure Semitic; sometimes it stands with , but in the sense of , Son 3:10, before the influence of the West led to its being used in the sense of (Ges. 143, 2); , is hated (Cod. 1294: , connects with the hatred which is directed against the poor also the indifference which makes him without sympathy, for one feels himself troubled by him and ashamed.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.
This shows, not what should be, but what is the common way of the world–to be shy of the poor and fond of the rich. 1. Few will give countenance to those whom the world frowns upon, though otherwise worthy of respect: The poor, who should be pitied, and encouraged, and relieved, is hated, looked strange upon, and kept at a distance, even by his own neighbour, who, before he fell into disgrace, was intimate with him and pretended to have a kindness for him. Most are swallow-friends, that are gone in winter. It is good having God our friend, for he will not desert us when we are poor. 2. Every one will make court to those whom the world smiles upon, though otherwise unworthy: The rich have many friends, friends to their riches, in hope to get something out of them. There is little friendship in the world but what is governed by self-interest, which is no true friendship at all, nor what a wise man will either value himself on or put any confidence in. Those that make the world their God idolize those that have most of its good things, and seek their favour as if indeed they were Heaven’s favourites.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Regard For the Poor
Verses 20 and 21, considered in the light of references listed below, contrast the regard of God and man for the poor. It is often true that friends and neighbors of the poor are the fair weather kind who renege when a need arises (Pro 19:4; Pro 19:7). To respect the rich and disregard or despise the poor is a lack of wisdom (Pro 11:12); a sin (Jas 2:9); and a reproach to God (Pro 17:5). To have compassion for the poor and help them is as lending to the LORD and assures His blessing, Pro 19:17; Psa 41:1. Jesus commended the example of the Good Samaritan, Luk 10:29-37.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 14:21. Poor, or suffering (Delitzsch).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 14:20-21
AN AGGRAVATED CRIME, A QUESTIONABLE VIRTUE, AND A PRESENT BLESSING
I. A fourfold sin. A man who despises or hates his neighbour sins
1. In the simple exercise of the feeling. Hatred, or even the act of despising another, is in itself a sin. Here we must distinguish between hatred of the person and hatred of his practicesbetween despising a man himself and despising his actions. God Himself hates and abhors evil character, but he makes a distinction between a mans character and the man. To hate or to despise any human creature is devilish.
2. By hating or despising him for his poverty. Poverty is a calamity oftenalways a burden and a cross. It is that for which a man should be pitied, and on account of which he should receive the sympathy of his fellow-men. Poverty is a burden heavy enough in itself, to add to it in any way is diabolical.
3. Because he hates and despises his fellow-sufferer. It is not a man beneath him, of whose trials he is ignorant, but his neighbour, one with whom he is on a level. The proverb speaks of one poor man hating another. Cases are not uncommon in which men who have risen from poverty to wealth hate and despise the class from which they have risen even more than those do who were born to rank and wealth. And sometimes men who have risen are hated by those whom they have left behind in the race. But for a poor man to dislike and to despise another poor man for his poverty, is a most unnatural and aggravated crime. A common calamity generally makes men feel a kinship for each other. Those who partake of a common lot generally feel a common sympathy. The poor do not generally hate and despise the poor. The poor man who does commit this sin against his neighbour commits a double sin against himself, for he knows himself the trials of his poor brother, and, therefore, does not sin through ignorance or inconsiderateness.
4. Against God. God putteth down one, and setteth up another (Psa. 75:7). It is His ordination that the poor shall never cease out of the land (Deu. 15:11). They are His especial care (Psa. 12:5, etc.), and He will count any addition to their burden as a wrong to Himself.
II. A questionable virtue. The rich hath many friends. Friendship with a rich man may spring from social equality. There is a natural tendency in men who are equals in anything to form friendships with each other. Men of the same moral standing do so, men of the same intellectual attainments are attracted to each other, and men who are equals in social rank and in wealth are, by the force of circumstances, often thrown into each others society, and so a friendship which is real may be formed. But it is a more questionable bond than that which unites men in the two first-mentioned cases. It may be only a counterfeit of the genuine article, and it is nothing more if wealth is the only bond. Friendships formed upon similarity of intellectual and moral wealth have a far firmer foundation, because they rest upon what is inseparable from the man himself, while friendship founded upon riches has for its foundation what may at any time take to itself wings and fly away. Or the friendship may be one of social inequality. A poor man may attach himself to a wealthy man. This, too, may be genuine. The friendship may be built upon something which both value more than wealth; but if the friendship of the rich with the rich is regarded with doubt, and requires adversity to test it, much more does the friendship of the poor for the rich. The proof of the genuineness of the metal is the fire, the proof of the seaworthiness of the vessel is the storm, and it is an universally recognised truth that the proof of friendship is power to come uninjured through the fire and storm of adverse circumstances.
III. A present blessedness. He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.
1. Happy because it is more blessed to give than to receive (Act. 20:35), because gladness always comes to the heart when an effort has been made to lighten anothers burden.
2. Happy in possessing the gratitude and confidence of his poor brother.
3. Happy because he wins the favour of God. (See on Pro. 14:31).
ILLUSTRATION OF Pro. 14:20
The bees were haunting the flowering trees in crowds, humming among the branches, and gathering honey in the flowers. Said Gott-hold, Here is an image of temporal prosperity. So long as there is blossom on the trees, and honey in the blossom, the bees will frequent them in crowds, and fill the place with their music; but when the blossom is over, and the honey gone, they too will disappear. Temporal gain is the worlds honey, and the allurement with which you may entice it whithersoever you will; but where the gain terminates, there likewise do the love and friendship of the world stop.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 14:20. Alas! it is a mystery of knowledge to discern friends: Wealth maketh many friends (chap. Pro. 19:4); they are friends to the wealth, not to the wealthy. They regard not qualis sis, but quantas, not how good thou art, but how great. They admire thee to thy face, but inwardly consider thee only as a necessary evil, yea, a necessary devil. Worldly friends are like hot water, that when cold weather comes, are soonest frozen. Like cuckoos all summer they will sing to thee, but they are gone in July at furthest; sure enough before the fall. They flatter a rich man, as we feed beasts, and then feed on him.T. Adams.
How former friendship etween two persons may be transformed into its opposite on account of the impoverishment of one of them, is impressively illustrated by our Lords parable of the neighbour whom a friend asks for three loaves (Luk. 11:5-8).Langes Commentary.
The same word in the original which signifieth a friend signifieth a neighbour also, because a neighbour should be a friend. But though a rich man hath friends far and near, a poor man is hated even of his neighbour. He that best knoweth his wants and should most of all pity them, doth least regard him and use him worst. He that is nearest at hand to help him is farthest off from helping him. Wherefore the neighbourhood of man being so bad, God becometh his neighbour, and as it is in the Psalms (Psa. 109:31). He standeth at the right hand of the poor to save him.Jermin.
Pro. 14:21. The impenitent is the poorest among men; and he who neglects him, and lets him go on in his iniquity, of course, is a cruel sinner. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that lead many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. He who despises his neighbour sins, literally misses, blunders. He wastes a splendid opportunity, not only for his neighbour, but for himself. The appeal is to self, and is made more intense where, instead of despising our neighbour, we actually devise evil against him (See next verse).Miller.
1. There is sin against the arrangements of Gods providence.
2. Against the frequent and express commands of His word (Deu. 15:7-11); Luk. 12:33; Luk. 14:12-14).
3. Against the manifestation of His distinguishing love. God has not only avowed Himself jealous for the poor, but to the poor the gospel is preached, and of those who become the subjects of Gods grace, and heirs of glory, a large proportion belong to this class.
4. In the contempt of Gods threatened vengeance against all who neglect them, and of His promised special favour to all who treat them with kindness.Wardlaw.
We show our contempt of the poor, not only by trampling upon them, but by overlooking them, or by withholding that help for which their distress loudly calls. The Levite and the priest that declined giving assistance to the wounded traveller on the way to Jericho, were notorious breakers of the law of love in the judgment of our Lord. The Samaritan was the only one that performed the duty of a neighbour.Lawson.
Through the gate of beneficence doth the charitable man enter into the city of peace God makes some rich, to help the poor; and suffers some poor to try the rich. The loaden would be glad of ease: now charity lighteneth the rich man of his superfluous and unwieldy carriage. When the poor find mercy they will be tractable; when the rich find quiet, they should be charitable. Would you have your goods kept in peace? First, lock them up by your prayers, then open them again with your thankful use, and trust them in the hands of Christ by your charity.T. Adams.
He that hath mercy on the poor maketh the others misery to be his own happiness, and as the other is comforted by it, so is he blessed by it. Blessed he is by the poor and his prayers for him, blessed he is by God and His favours upon him. Tabitha had reached out her hand to give unto the poor, and Peter reacheth out his hand in delivering her from death. She had bestowed clothing on the poor, and life is bestowed upon her. Wherefore the exhortation of Chrysostom is, those things which God hath given us, let us give Him again, that so with advantage they may be again made ours.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(20) The poor is hated even of his own neighbour.This sad experience of life is repeated in Pro. 19:7. The following verse serves as a corrective of this selfish tendency of mankind.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Hated That is, treated with neglect or contempt, as if hated, while the rich man commands attention. Compare Pro 19:4; Pro 19:7; Job 19:13-14; Job 30:10.
Neighbour Or, friend.
But the rich hath many friends Literally, the lovers of the rich are many.
v. 20. The poor is hated even of his own neighbor,
Pro 14:20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich [hath] many friends.
Ver. 20. The poor is hated, ] i.e., Less loved, little respected, as Gen 29:31 Mal 1:5 Luk 14:26 . The heathen could say, A – adversity finds few friends. Et cum fortuna statque caditque fides. Few will appear for suffering saints. This Job and David much complain of; but when a deer is shot, the rest of the herd push him out of their company, so here, Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris. The same Hebrew word that signifies winter, an emblem of poverty, signifies reproach. “This thy son”; Luk 15:30 not this “my brother,” because in poverty. The Samaritans would not once own the Jews when they were in a poor estate, but disavow them, as they did to Antiochus Epiphanes; a but when in prosperity, then they would curry favour with them, and call them their sweet cousins. When it was sometimes disputed among the Romans in the council, using to deify great men, whether Christ, having done many wonderful works, should be received into the number of the gods, it was resolved that he should not, Propter hoc, quod paupertatem predicarit et elegerit, quam mundus contemnit, because he preached poverty and chose poor men whom the world cares not for.
But the rich man hath many friends. a Josephus.
b Purchas.
The poor = A needy one. Hebrew. rash. See note on Pro 6:11.
the rich = a rich man.
Pro 14:20
Pro 14:20
“The poor is hated, even of his own neighbor; But the rich hath many friends.”
“This sad but true picture of human nature is not here mentioned approvingly, but merely stated as a fact.
This verse flings wide the gates of memory in this writer’s life. We children were all small, and our father read this chapter before the evening prayer. That was my brother David’s fifth birthday, and our father had just given him ten silver half-dollars for his birthday. Another brother (Robert), a little older than David, requested a loan of a half dollar. David reversed the clauses of this verse, saying, “The rich hath many friends, but the poor is despised by his neighbor. I won’t let you have it”! As Deane noted, “This verse should be taken with the one which follows, because together they teach that it is a sin to despise and shun a man simply because he is poor.
Pro 14:20. There is a certain shame and disgrace to extreme poverty that causes even neighbors not to be associated with such in peoples minds. This is why people are often ashamed of their poor relatives (Pro 10:7), their clothes, their car, their home, their ways, etc. But people are usually glad to claim relationship and friendship with the financially successful (a saying: Success makes false friends and true enemies). The rich have many friends, especially if they are generous with their gifts or have powers and offices to bestow.
poor: Pro 10:15, Pro 19:7, Job 6:21-23, Job 19:13, Job 19:14, Job 30:10
but: Pro 19:4, Pro 19:6, Est 3:2, Est 5:10, Est 5:11
the rich hath many friends: Heb. many are the lovers of the rich.
Reciprocal: Gen 14:17 – to Lev 25:35 – thy brother 1Sa 18:23 – a poor man Ecc 7:12 – wisdom Luk 14:12 – when
Pro 14:20. The poor is hated That is, despised and abandoned, as hateful persons and things are; of his own neighbour Strictly so called of persons nearest to him, either by habitation or relation, and therefore most obliged to love and help him; but the rich hath many friends As matter of fact daily shows. Every one is ready to make court to those whom the world smiles upon, though otherwise unworthy. Such, however, are not so much friends to the rich as to their riches, hoping to get some benefit by them. There is little friendship in the world but what is governed by self- interest, which is no true friendship at all; nor what a wise man will value himself upon, or put any confidence in.
"Neighbor" refers to any person with whom we come in contact, not just someone who may live nearby (cf. Luk 10:31). [Note: See ibid., p. 293.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)