The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Parallel translations
- WEB The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.
- KJV The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
- NKJV The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender.
- NASB The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
- NLT Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.
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 rich rule the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender's servant. It matters as a sober observation about the bondage of debt.
Overview
The proverb observes a hard reality: wealth confers power, and debt places one in servitude to the lender (Proverbs 22:26-27; Deuteronomy 15:6). It cautions against the entanglements of debt. While describing the world as it is, it implicitly commends prudence and warns against needless financial bondage.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- 2 Kgs 4:1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”
- Matt 18:25Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.
- Prov 22:16Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.
- Prov 18:23The poor man pleads for mercy, but the rich man answers harshly.
- Prov 14:31Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.
- Jas 2:6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?
- Prov 22:22Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,
- Jas 5:1Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- Neh 5:4–5Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.
- Amos 5:11–12Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
- Isa 24:2people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
- Amos 4:1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”
- Amos 8:4Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- Amos 8:6Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”
- Amos 2:6This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.
- Jas 5:4Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 22:7 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.