Original Meaning
THIS CHAPTER OPENS with the alternating themes that closed chapter 18: integrity of speech and the relation of wealth and friends.1 We see then that it is possible to work with a section of proverbs that begins in one chapter and ends in another, just as the figures of mockers and sluggards that appear in this chapter continue into 20:1–4. Sayings on the poor cluster at the beginning (19:1, 4, 7) and middle (19:17, 22); the first and last of these are “better than” sayings about the poor and integrity (19:1, 22). The contrasting picture of the false witness and punishment also comes at the beginning (19:1, 5, 9) and end (19:28–29). Sayings about knowledge begin and end the chapter (19:2, 25, 27), while sayings about the fool appear only in the first half (19:1, 3, 10, 13). The figures of the fool, the sluggard, and the mocker help the reader identify proverbial clusters.
Fools, friends, and false witnesses (19:1–9)
Fools, rulers, and families (19:10–14)
Sluggards and discipline (19:15–24)2
Mockers and knowledge (19:25–29)
These figures and the key terms instruction/discipline (musar), knowledge, and the parental voice remind the reader of the instructions of chapters 1–9 and their urgent plea that the son “listen to advice and accept instruction” (19:20; cf. 19:27).
Fools, Friends, and False Witnesses (19:1–9)
THESE PROVERBS JUXTAPOSE pictures of folly and the evil of false witness with the friendships of the wealthy and poor. A proverb about gaining wisdom stands out from its context.
19:1. The “better than” sayings typically speak to matters of poverty and wealth (cf. 15:16–17; 16:8; 17:1) or satirize the fool (17:12); this is the first to combine the themes. The contrast is surprising, for one expects “rich” to parallel “poor” (cf. 28:6).3 However, a blameless walk and a crooked tongue mix metaphors in typical proverbial style, the path of the feet and words of the mouth serving as expressions of either wisdom or folly. Most striking is the juxtaposition of folly and perversity, an association that has only been implied before. Verses 1–3 are linked together by the vocabulary of feet walking on the path and the theme of the destructive results of folly.
19:2. This saying is linked with verse 1 by the repetition of “good” (ṭob) and the metaphor of walking. The two lines work independently and as a pair; “zeal” or “desire” (NRSV)4 needs the guidance of “knowledge” or it will walk in a way that is “not good.” One manifestation is the “hasty” feet that “miss the way” (“miss” uses a typical Heb. word for “sin,” ḥaṭṭaʾ ). By implication, the proverb holds out patience and caution as knowledgeable companions of desire.
19:3. The “way” that was implied by “walk” in verse 1 and the Hebrew for “feet” in verse 2 is named here; it is the “overturned way,” a metaphor translated by NIV as a “ruined life” (the verb may have overtones of the “perverted way”). The second line may intentionally move in two directions. The heart that rages against Yahweh is certainly the source of all folly, but it may also be a result. The fool, having ruined his life all by himself, now wants to blame God for his misfortune!5
19:4. Verses 4–7 cluster around the themes of wealth/poverty and friendship. A contrast between “many friends” and the only “friend” that deserts (lit., “is separated”; cf. 18:1) highlights the poor person’s plight. So far, the description of the one with wealth and friends is neutral, yet reader’s sympathies are directed to the isolated poor; the plenty of the rich seems merely unfair, not culpable. Yet the proverb points out the painful truth that most would rather be a friend to the rich. More than anything else, the proverb is an indictment of unreliable friends (cf. related sayings in 18:23–24).6
19:5. The saying seems unrelated to its context, but the theme of true and false speech returns from 19:1 and 18:20–21. If one gains wealth or courts friendship through falsehood, that perverse use of speech will eventually be repaid. False words and lies are often paired to denote the betrayal of the neighbor/friend relationship. The proverb is nearly identical with 19:9; parts of it appear in 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:9; 21:28. The theme is stated with variation in 19:6–7.
19:6. In what appears to be a neutral description like that in verse 4, the two lines compare a “ruler” who can dispense favors with one who seeks favors by giving “gifts.” Yet the friendship is hollow for both parties, being based only on self-interest and personal gain. The plurals “many” and “everyone” highlight the contrast with the deserted friend of 19:4 and 7. The poor have nothing to give or to buy friends with (cf. 18:16, 23), a bitter observation on relationships.
19:7. The Hebrew of the first line resembles that of verse 6b (“Everyone is the friend”) so that it can be translated, “Everyone of the poor man’s brothers shuns him,” setting up a contrast similar to verse 4. In this unusual proverb of three lines, the last is most troublesome to translate, as the NIV text note indicates.7 Whatever we choose to do with the third line, the point of the first two lines is clear and expands the picture of verse 4. The poor person is deserted even by relatives, so it is not unexpected that friends also keep their distance. Juxtaposed with the friendship of wealth in verse 6, this proverb resembles the saying of our song, “Nobody knows you when you’re down and out.” It is a portrait of superficial friendship, practiced even by one’s family. Another “how much more” proverb appears in 19:10 (see also 11:31; 15:11; 17:7; 21:27).
19:8. An upbeat saying intrudes on this unhappy series of proverbs, assuring the reader that those who acquire “heart” or sense (here translated “wisdom”) care for themselves; it is a way of loving one’s own life (nepeš can be translated “soul, life, self” as well as “desire, zeal”; cf. 19:2). The one who “keeps” understanding prospers (lit., “finds good,” reminding the reader of the man who finds a wife, 18:22; cf. 16:20; 17:20). Contrasted with the shallow and self-serving attention given to the wealthy and powerful, there is an element of surprise in this advice, for it does not urge readers to become better friends but to care for self. However, if anyone gets understanding and wisdom, this self-care will certainly lead to the good of family and neighbors.
19:9. This proverb is virtually identical with verse 5 except for a substitution of “perish” for “not go free.” Readers are challenged to discern why the repetition is made when most of the other verses in the cluster speak of favors and help. This crime of perjury is more than a preference for the rich over the poor, it is outright attack. It is not stated whether the recompense comes from the legal system or in the form of final judgment from Yahweh.
Fools, Rulers, and Families (19:10–14)
IN THIS SECTION proverbs about fools and families hold up the quality of wisdom (śekel, 19:11, 14) in wise persons and wives. Such wisdom knows how to control one’s own temper and how to keep it from flaring up in others.
19:10. Another “how much more” saying (cf. 19:7) compares the fool living in luxury to the apparently unthinkable situation of a slave ruling over a prince (cf. 30:21–23). Yet wisdom thinking allows for just this reversal, at least in a household where the servant is wise and the son shameful (17:2).8 Experience confirms the truth of the picture; fools usually do not live in luxury, but sometimes exceptions prove the rule. As the second line shows, however, it certainly is not fitting! The proverb may point to the more fitting chain of events in verse 9.
19:11. Verses 11–12 are linked by the theme of anger and forbearance. The virtue of “patience” is here associated with wisdom (cf. the root śkl for the “prudent wife” in 19:14). The patient person is (lit.) “long of nose,” meaning that it takes a long time for the nose to get hot in anger (cf. 16:32). It is one’s glory to overlook an offense (cf. 17:9) instead of seeking strife (cf. 17:19; 29:22). Ironically, it is when we seek to protect our honor or status by quarreling that we stand to lose it the most.
19:12. This second saying on anger (19:11) returns to the subject of rulers (19:10). Readers may conclude that this king stands in contrast with the wise person of the previous saying. Other proverbs about the king’s anger mention death (cf. 16:14–15; 20:2), and here the image of grass wet with life-giving dew contrasts sharply with the lion heard growling, perhaps hidden in the same grass. If it is wise to practice patience and restrain one’s anger, it is also wise to do everything possible to keep from provoking anger in one more powerful.
19:13. Verses 13–14 contrast the “quarrelsome wife” with the “prudent wife,” each verse also including a mention of parents and estate. The first line of this proverb is easier to grasp than the second. A fool for a son spells calamity for a father who hopes he will grow up to care for the family and its businesses (17:2). If that father has counted on that help for the family’s survival, the son who sleeps during harvest (10:1–5) will leave the family destitute. The continual dripping of the quarrelsome wife is not like the annoyance of a leaky faucet; the dripping roof is destructive and dangerous,9 a fitting parallel for the ruin of the foolish son. “Quarrelsome” most likely refers to relationships in the community, the strife that drives neighbors apart.
19:14. Note that typically, Bible readers quote the second line without the first, but here (as in 19:13) the words “father” and “wife” appear in the first and second lines respectively. The contrast suggests that one inherits wealth and house from family, but the wife who does one good is a gift of God (cf. 18:22). Again the mysterious correspondence between decision and blessing is held up but not explained (cf. 16:1, 33). The contrast between the quarrelsome wife (19:13) and the one who is prudent (root śkl = “wisdom” in 19:11) extends the picture of the happy and prosperous home.
Sluggards and Discipline (19:15–24)
VERSES 15–17 REPEAT the key words of verses 2 (nepeš, “zeal, desire”), 3 (derek, “way”), and 4 (dal, “poor”) in the same order, suggesting that the chapter divides into two halves. The emphases on a father’s “discipline” as an antidote to laziness and lying reminds the reader of the instructions of chapters 1–9.
19:15. Even as the happy and prosperous home comes as a gift (19:14), it requires diligence and hard work or the estate can be lost. Perhaps readers are to see the shameful son in this picture of laziness (Prov. 19:13; cf. 10:5). The Hebrew for the “shiftless man” can be translated “the desire [nepeš; cf. v. 2] of the indolent,” so that as laziness only brings on sleep, the appetite of the indolent goes hungry. “Deep sleep” usually comes from God (tardemah, Gen. 2:21; 15:12; 1 Sam. 26:12; Job 4:13; 33:15).10 In the creation story, Adam’s deep sleep ends as he awakes to meet his wife, a gift from God (Prov. 19:14). Here it is the result of slack hands that end up empty (10:3–4; 12:27).
19:16. “Instructions” is (lit.) “command” (miṣwah; cf. 6:23; 13:13), a word often used of parental teaching (2:1; 4:4; 7:2). In the context of Proverbs it points to the directions for living that one ignores at one’s peril. To refuse their guidance is to despise one’s way, to be careless about where one walks. A double use of the Hebrew word “keep” (šmr) in the first line can be translated “one who keeps instructions keeps one’s life” (nepeš, “life, person, desire”; cf. 19:15).
19:17. Instead of a describing of the poor person’s destitute lot (19:4, 7), here the proverb show a poor person helped by a neighbor who shows kindness. Because Yahweh repays such good work, the saying calls this interaction a loan to God (14:31; 17:5). While the poor often cannot repay, Yahweh always can—not as the return for some kind of seed-faith investment but as a general reward for righteousness and its alignment with wisdom. The picture of plenty for all is central to the teaching of torah (Deut. 15:1–11).
19:18. The words “discipline” and “son” in the first line remind the reader of the instructions of chapters 1–9, where discipline (musar; cf. 19:20) carries the double meaning of instruction and correction (sometimes even punishment), the emphasis depending on context. However, while those instructions were directed to the son, here the proverb urges parents to exercise such discipline “for in that there is hope,” the possibility for a good outcome.11 The proverb recognizes the possibility of a bad outcome, which is set out in the second line. This can be woodenly translated, “and to kill him, do not lift your soul/desire” (nepeš; cf. 19:2, 15, 16). While some understand the discipline as corporal punishment (cf. 13:24; 23:13–14), others see it as an alternative to execution (cf. Deut. 21:18–21).12
19:19. The second person (“you”) of the previous verse continues, as does the theme of rescue. Just as “you” might rescue a son with vigilant discipline, so “you” might be called on to rescue (or even pay the fine of) a person of wrath. However, there is a big difference between teaching someone while there is “hope” and bailing out someone who will not learn, for you will have to do it again and again. The saying not only recommends the value of a cool temper, but it also offers advice on handling the one who has not cultivated it. If a person has not learned self-discipline (19:18), then no kind of rescue will ever be effective.
19:20. This third proverb to use the second-person imperative offers more general advice, not to the parents but to the young. “Discipline” (musar) and “in the end” remind the reader of 19:18, while the practice of listening to advice stands in sharp contrast with the hot temper of 19:19. In fact, the goal of becoming “wise” might be defined as living with the end in view; the Hebrew speaks of “your end.” If the phrase points to the end of life, then wisdom is a lifelong project, not a job order that one fulfills and moves on. There is also some hint that one becomes wise in order to teach others.
19:21. Like the Yahweh sayings of 16:1–4, 33, this proverb contrasts human and divine purposes, moving from the “many plans” to the one that will “prevail” or stand (taqum). Yahweh’s “purpose” is his counsel (ʿeṣab, “advice”; cf. 19:20), perhaps suggesting that to listen to wise human counsel is to also be receptive to the counsel of the Lord. Once again, the proverb urges its readers to consider final outcomes and ends.
19:22. The last of the five sayings about the poor in this chapter (19:1, 4, 7, 17, 22) resembles the first, a “better than” saying about the poor person who does not lie (cf. 19:1). The Hebrew of the first line can actually be read two ways, depending on the translation of the word ḥesed. While this term is usually used for kindness and faithfulness (esp. of Yahweh), in some contexts it is used for shame (Lev. 20:17; Prov. 14:34). If “shame” is used, then “desire” takes on the negative charge of “greed” (cf. NIV text note).13 The reading of the NIV, however, draws a contrast between human fidelity and the faithlessness of the liar. The “liar” is elsewhere a corrupt witness (6:19; 14:5, 25; 19:9; 21:28). Therefore, it is better to be poor and honest than to have great gain through lies (cf. 19:1; cf. 19:5, 9).
19:23. The last of the Yahweh sayings in this chapter returns to a familiar topic, human response to one whose counsel stands (cf. 19:21). The first line can be translated, “Fear of the LORD—to life!” “Life” (ḥayyim) denotes the sense of life lived to the full, including a long life of health, prosperity, and honor, the primary motivators of the instructions. In the second line, this life is pictured as a traveler who has found lodging that satisfies (food and a place to rest the head) and is safe (not bothered by evil or trouble, raʿ ). For a traveler, to lie down in safety and rise up again was no small thing (cf. 6:22). Thus, to fear Yahweh is to fear nothing else.
19:24. In contrast with the verse before, this proverb lampoons one who goes unsatisfied (cf. the identical proverb in 26:15). Like the picture of laziness and hunger in 19:15, this satiric saying imagines one who even finds the effort of eating to be too much. The contradiction may hold the key: Most sluggards do want something for nothing; here, the irony of sloth comes out in a humorous sight that hides the stinger. Although no one is really that lazy, the exaggeration shows that sloth will leave one hungry.
Mockers and Knowledge (19:25–29)
THESE PROVERBS FEATURE the negative example of the “mocker” (19:25, 28, 29) to aid the parent’s instruction about learning or missing “knowledge” (19:25, 27).
19:25. The contrast is plain; beat a mocker as an example to the simple, because the mocker is beyond learning. The bite of the saying is that of the two, only the simple have the hope of learning “prudence” this way. But if you correct an understanding person with words, that same person will understand (root byn) knowledge (cf. 19:27, which repeats the word “knowledge,” and the similar proverb of 17:10). The mocker reappears in 19:28–29.
19:26. The symbolism of this proverb makes sense when read in reverse: The shameful son (cf. 19:13) brings ruin on the house, which is tantamount to robbing father and evicting mother. The proverb may be hyperbolic, like the saying on the sluggard (19:24) and the parable of the son who threw away half his father’s estate (Luke 15:11–24). Yet Jesus also had harsh words for the Pharisee’s practice of Corban (Mark 7:9–13), so the danger of failing to honor and care for parents is real (Deut. 5:16), especially when the son’s foolishness has left the parents destitute.
19:27. This saying is unusual in that it not only speaks in second person, but it addresses the son. If we read it in context, the proverb then speaks in the voice of the parents who were just wronged in the previous verse. The two lines are linked by a repetition of similar sounding imperative verbs, italicized in my translation as, “To cease to listen [lišmoaʿ ] to instruction my son, is to stray [lišgot] from words of knowledge.” The warning is a counterpoint to 19:20, where the words “listen” (šma) and “instruction” (musar) appear. The image of stepping away from “knowledge” appears in 19:2 (cf. 19:25). In Proverbs, a young learner can be led astray by another woman, a sign of one’s own folly (5:20, 23), wine and beer (20:1), and evil men (28:10).
19:28. This enigmatic proverb incorporates images scattered throughout the chapter; the corrupt witness breathes lies (19:1, 5, 9, 22) and in so doing mocks the very idea of justice (19:25, 29). “Gulps down evil” is ambiguous, pointing to the greedy appetite of the wicked but also hinting at final rewards (cf. 18:20–21). Desire without knowledge is not good (19:2), for you may swallow poison!
19:29. Linked with the previous saying by the repetition of “justice” or judgment (root špṭ, “penalties”) and “mock,” this saying delivers the payback that the reader has been waiting for. Mockers receive the very justice they once spurned, penalties that are “prepared” or stored. The beatings of 19:25 will take place, and while they may not instruct the mockers or fools (17:10; 26:3), they will teach one willing to watch and learn that God’s justice is not mocked (19:5, 9).
Bridging Contexts
OF THE MANY and varied scenes presented in this collection of proverbs, a number of repeated words and themes stand out. As we tried to understand each proverb as it might be heard in its original setting, we observed that (1) the repeated emphasis on discipline and instruction sounds very much like the parental teaching of Proverbs 1–9, (2) the sayings about the rich and poor speak about integrity and friendship, and (3) the five Yahweh sayings keep the Lord at center stage.14 In sum, as we turn to consider the significance of these proverbs for today, we see that their teaching on integrity and truthfulness speak to our dealings with wealth and neighbors, all in the sight of Yahweh, who loves justice and establishes his counsel.
Discipline and instruction. The matter of parents teaching sons and the repetition of the term “knowledge” (19:2, 25, 27) remind us of the instructions of chapters 1–9 and the teaching that will resume at 22:17. The emphasis on knowledge stands out in the proverb (“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way,” 19:2), and we have seen that “zeal” translates a word that is often used for life and life’s desires (nepeš). We might therefore conclude that desire and its passions must be accompanied by wisdom’s kind of knowledge or it will be “not good.”
But those who get wisdom love their souls (nepeš, 19:8); just as those who obey instructions love their lives (nepeš, 19:16), the desire (nepeš, 19:15) of the shiftless goes hungry without it. In previous chapters we have spoken about the “discipline of desire,” which sets our God-given passions and desires within the boundaries of wisdom’s framework of love and justice. So here, the echoes of the parent’s lessons to the son (chs. 1–9) remind us again that this discipline of desire is a lifelong project, for adult sons and daughters can bring joy or ruin to their parents (19:13, 18).
The linked proverbs in 19:25 and 27 remind us that we never outgrow the need to “accept instruction” and that what counts is being wise “in the end.” We cannot be sure how adults of old received this instruction; perhaps it came from the extended family, perhaps from trusted friends. For adults today, this may speak to the need to talk about our working lives, our family and community responsibilities, and the development of our inner lives, yet many Christians find it difficult to locate other believers with whom they can discuss such things freely without fear of judgment. We should be more intentional in seeking out such groups and in providing them.
It is also striking that two grotesque examples of negative behavior also make a return appearance from the instructions. Two figures from chapter 6, the sluggard and the scoundrel, typify passive dependence and active betrayal, both forms of resisting wisdom’s instruction (cf. 12:17–27). So here the sluggard’s “mouth” goes empty for lack of effort while the “mouth” of the wicked gulps down evil (vv. 24, 28). Yahweh especially hates the lying tongue and the false witness who pours out lies, a figure repeated twice here (19:5, 9; cf. 19:28; also 6:16–19). In fact, it is better to be poor than to gain material wealth in this way, for what everyone desires is “unfailing love,” the consideration of others practiced by those who receive instruction (19:1, 22; cf. 20:6). Today, just as it was then, laziness and treachery are variations on a stubborn refusal to learn from others or to love them. Fools listen to and care for no one but themselves.
Integrity and friendship. A number of proverbs in the chapter explore the relationship between friendship with the rich and friendship with the poor. While the instructions of chapters 1–9 did not deal specifically with the matters of wealth and poverty, they did warn against those behaviors of violence and lying that are often motivated by greed. Earlier collections of the individual proverbs compared the lives of the poor and rich, as in 13:8, “A man’s riches may ransom his life, but a poor man hears no threat.” But here we see that bribes and gifts buy one’s way into success and win many friends (19:6; cf. 17:8; 18:16), while the poor person is shunned by friend and family alike (19:4, 7). Therefore, the one who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, who will pay back what the poor cannot.
Wealth makes friends, as Jesus reminded us (Luke 19:6). The question is, whom do we desire for our friends? If the poor have no friends and the one who gives gifts has many, we naturally conclude that friendship of this sort is superficial and fair-weathered. Yet to make friends with the poor by kindness is to make friends with God; so Jesus told us the King takes every kindness done to the least as done for him (Matt. 25:31–46). Friendship like this continues through good times and bad (Prov. 17:17).
We may take it as a sign of our own importance to have friendships with the well-connected, but wisdom reminds us that the most important friendships are those we make with those who have nothing to give in return. Jesus said in Luke 14:12–14 (cf. 6:32–36):
When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
The gifts that win many friends can be given to the powerful or they can be put on deposit with the Lord. The corrupt witness, the gifts, and the bribes all speak to rewards of another kind, and the general theme of payback runs throughout the chapter, through the punishment of the lying witness (19:5, 9) and the just judgments prepared for the mockers (19:29). We might conclude that every use of our money has its paybacks, it rewards, and the proverbs gathered here instruct us that wisdom pays better returns. We may find ourselves in positions where we have to deal with those in authority over us (19:10, 12), yet to believe that our own well-being is only wrapped up in theirs is to engage in the most foolish of thinking. We can put the question this way: Whose friendship do we really want? We can court the rich and powerful and forget the poor, but if we do, we will also pass by the Lord, who chooses to identify with them.
The Lord at center stage. The five proverbs that name Yahweh (“the LORD”) in this chapter affirm again and again that just as we want to have the king for our friend, so we should want to remain friends with Yahweh above anyone else. Yet the fool’s heart rages against him (19:3), even though it is his purpose that prevails (19:21). For those who fear him, Yahweh grants the gift of a good wife (19:14), repays kindness done for the poor (19:17), and brings life, satisfaction, and safety (19:23).
The chapter also implies that Yahweh is a judge whose justice will not be mocked. Fools can rage against him and pervert their way (19:3), but false witnesses will not go unpunished (19:5, 9), and mockers will suffer the penalties prepared, just as beatings are prepared for the backs of fools (19:29). Given the association between the king and Yahweh observed in chapter 16, can we infer that the description of Yahweh in this chapter is much like that of the king, his anger like the roar of a lion and his favor like dew on the grass? If so, then here is another reminder that to court any king but Yahweh is to fall into the deepest folly.
“But a prudent wife is from the LORD” (19:14b). Remembering that a previous proverb on finding a wife (18:22) points back to personified wisdom, the gift of God (8:35), readers will see here a similar link between parental teaching that prepares the young man to choose the right kind of wife and the personified figure of wisdom as that life partner (cf. 31:10–31). The symbolism suggests that embracing wisdom becomes the passage to adulthood, so that one moves into maturity by choosing wisdom as a lifelong companion. This is not to jettison the plain sense that a prudent wife is from Yahweh (so are prudent husbands!) but to recognize that these echoes of the parents’ lectures of chapters 1–9 use the same literary strategy that links coming of age with embracing the way of wisdom. So parents can pass on houses and wealth (19:14) and even their teaching (19:20, 27), but Yahweh is the source of the wisdom that brings life.
Contemporary Significance
OUR RELATIONSHIP to the poor. Like parents teaching their son, the proverbs of this chapter would have us receive instruction and correction with the express goal of educating our desire (nepeš) with knowledge (daʿat, 19:2, 25, 27). While it is nowhere stated this way, we may infer that the parents’ lectures of chapters 1–9 have given way to the teaching of the larger community, and it is this correction the parents recommend to their son.
From where will such correction come? Certainly it will come from the negative examples of this chapter—the fool in luxury, the sluggard in poverty, the lying witness, acts against family (evicting mothers and deserting brothers), a preference for the rich with gifts that will buy favor. But such correction can also come from those very persons who are so often shunned and overlooked; perhaps it will be the poor who will tell us the truth about the way our society and our churches work. It is better to be poor with integrity, better to be poor than a liar (19:1, 22). Of course it is better to have integrity and enough to live on, but if we have to choose, character comes first. This is not to say that those who go without do so out of choice, for we know that most do not. Still, could it be that poor people also know and see in ways that would be instructive for us? If we will let them, those who know deprivation will become our teachers.
The work of Robert Coles15 has shown us that when a person lends an interested ear, children and adults who know poverty will speak about their lives in a way that teaches and moves. Coles went to live among migrant farm workers and heard children struggling with profound questions of faith and innocent suffering while he heard adults give eloquent testimony to a strong faith. One woman said:
If someone offered me a million dollars, and said I could have all I want to eat for myself and my children, but I’d have to stop thinking about Him and start thinking of myself only, then I’d know I was in real trouble. I’d start worrying about myself. I “hope” I would. I hope I’d remember Jesus. He warned us about thinking about ourselves and not Him. He asked a lot of us.16
When Coles turned his attention from the children of poverty to those from affluent backgrounds, to his surprise he found that the fruits of such privilege were a mixture of pride and anxiety, the same that he realized were in his own heart. His five books on those interviews, Children in Crisis, won a Pulitzer Prize, but more important, they helped Coles gain a sense of his own mission. Trained as a psychiatrist, he went on to teach courses in literature to Harvard business students, medical students, law students—any and all who were expected to enter the workforce and become a success. Those students testified that the novels they read together confronted them with questions of what was most important in life. One spoke of his encounter with the truth “that we’re always in danger of talking one line and living another—and the more successful we are, the more the danger.”17
Thus, by listening to children, parents, and students, Coles and others like him give voice to both rich and poor and their experience of life, the truth has a better chance of being told, and as a result, we receive instruction. We also reject false witness when we allow everyone’s story to be heard instead of only a few: “What [a person] desires is loyalty” (19:22). One way to show that faithfulness to others is to turn our attention toward their stories and allow them to examine our own. Here is one step we can take toward knowledge that will discipline our desires.
Yet we know that it will not do to simply listen to the lives and stories of the poor, for what they need are friends (19:4–7). I take that in the most general sense to mean that friends are those who care about their welfare: “What a person desires is loyalty.” Some will show their friendship with the poor through works of compassion, others as they work and call for justice. But whatever form it takes, a commitment to be there for those who often feel as if they have no one who cares for them can be the greatest contribution the church and its Christians can make. To be present is to acknowledge that those people exist. To stay away is to believe and propagate the tacit lie that they do not exist, perhaps itself another form of false witness.
Henri Nouwen came to realize that friendship like this is the purpose for which we were created. One of the twentieth century’s most significant writers on Christian spirituality, with teaching posts at Yale and Harvard, Nouwen told gatherings of ministers that at the end of life, God would not ask him how many books he had written but rather how well he had loved his neighbor. As he taught pastoral theology to those who would become ministers in the American church, he became concerned about the connection with the “other” America, the continent to the south. “I knew that God’s voice could not be heard unless it would include the voices of the men, women and children of Latin America.” For six months, therefore, he lived in Bolivia and Peru to discern whether God might be calling him to live and work there.
Nouwen’s thoughts and impressions of that time are recorded in his journal, published under the title ¡Gracias!, a title that gave testimony to the grace of God and Nouwen’s thanks for all he had learned during that time. As he reflected on the richness of life among those who had so little, he began to experience a poverty of his own, a shortage of thanksgiving. He concluded his time by reflecting that the “poor are a eucharistic people, people who know how to say thanks to God, to life, to each other.” Recognizing that all of life is a gift, he concluded that it is all given so that we can say thanks:
A treasure lies hidden in the soul of Latin America, a spiritual treasure to be recognized as a gift for us who live in the illusion of power and self-control. It is the treasure of gratitude that can help us to break through the walls of our individual and collective self-righteousness and can prevent us from destroying ourselves and our planet in the futile attempt to hold onto what we consider our own.18
Nouwen’s emphasis on gratitude reminds us that the Yahweh sayings in Proverbs 19 tell us that God will not be outgiven. Lend to the poor and you will be repaid in full; fear Yahweh and you will rest safely, untroubled by worry (19:17, 23). Does this mean that we will never make a bad loan or suffer any setbacks? Of course not. But it does mean that this life of God-fearing wisdom will lead us to see that what we do have is a gift, not a privilege, and we will find that we need much less than we think.
There are many angles on this matter of receiving instruction throughout the chapter, but it really does boil down to the education, or better the discipline, of our desires. I suspect that we carry no small measure of guilt over our desires, for we know that often we are silly putty in the hands of marketers, that we feel a sense of deprivation when it appears that our friends are doing better than we are. We hear of saints who have chosen to forgo the comforts of wealth and privilege, and we feel guilty for not wanting to let go, or we talk ourselves out of guilt and say that God calls us to different paths.
These proverbs remind us that our desires are not bad but they can be uninformed, or better undisciplined. They tell us that desires not informed by knowledge are “not good” and that in our haste to fulfill our wants we can easily misstep. Proverbs would have us learn another way. Instead of worrying about how well we are doing, we can worry about how well those with less are doing. Seeing that what we have is a gift, we are free to give it again.