Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend.
Parallel translations
- KJV Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.
- BSB Wealth attracts many friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.
- NKJV Wealth makes many friends, But the poor is separated from his friend.
- NASB Wealth adds many friends, But a poor person is separated from his friend.
- NLT Wealth makes many “friends”; poverty drives them all away.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wealth attracts friends, but poverty drives them away. The proverb soberly notes how riches and need affect relationships.
Overview
This proverb observes that wealth gathers many friends while the poor man is deserted even by the friend he had. It is a realistic, even lamenting, description of fickle human loyalty rather than an endorsement of it. Set against verses like 18:24, it exposes the shallowness of self-interested friendship and points to the steadfast love of God, who does not abandon the needy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Prov 14:20The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.
- Prov 19:6–7Many will entreat the favor of a ruler, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.
- Job 19:13–17“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
- Luke 15:13–15Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
- Prov 10:15The rich man’s wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
- Job 6:15–23My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 19:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.