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.
Parallel translations
- KJV All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.
- BSB All the brothers of a poor man hate him—how much more do his friends avoid him! He may pursue them with pleading, but they are nowhere to be found.
- NKJV All the brothers of the poor hate him; How much more do his friends go far from him! He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him.
- NASB All the brothers of a poor person hate him; How much more do his friends abandon him! He pursues them with words, but they are gone.
- NLT The relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone.
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
The poor are shunned even by relatives and friends. Poverty can leave a person isolated and ignored.
Overview
This proverb laments that the poor man is avoided by his own family and abandoned by his friends, who are 'gone' even as he pursues them with pleas. It exposes the painful loneliness that poverty often brings and the failure of human compassion. Such sober realism heightens the beauty of the gospel, in which God draws near to the poor and lowly (Ps. 113:7) and Christ welcomes the outcast.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 88:8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
- Jas 2:15–16And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
- Prov 18:23The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.
- Prov 19:4Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend.
- 1 Jn 3:17–18But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
- Ps 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
- Ps 88:18You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
- Prov 21:13Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.
- Eccl 9:15–16Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
- Luke 18:38–40He cried out, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!”
- Prov 14:20The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.
- Jas 2:6But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 19:7 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.