The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Parallel translations
- WEB The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.
- BSB The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave 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 there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
- Matt 18:25But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
- Prov 22:16He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.
- Prov 18:23The poor useth intreaties; but the rich answereth roughly.
- Prov 14:31He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.
- Jas 2:6But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
- Prov 22:22Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
- Jas 5:1Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
- Neh 5:4–5There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards.
- Amos 5:11–12Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
- Isa 24:2And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
- Amos 4:1Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.
- Amos 8:4Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
- Amos 8:6That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
- Amos 2:6Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
- Jas 5:4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
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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 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
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