20 The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The maxim, jarring as it is, represents the generalization of a wide experience; but the words which follow Proverbs 14:21 show that it is not to be taken by itself. In spite of all the selfish morality of mere prudence, the hearer is warned that to despise his "neighbor" (Christians must take the word in all the width given to it by the parable of the Good Samaritan) is to sin. The fullness of blessing comes on him who sees in the poor the objects of his mercy.
But the rich hath many friends - Many who speak to him the language of friendship; but if they profess friendship because he is rich, there is not one real friend among them. There is a fine saying of Cicero on this subject: Ut hirundines festivo tempore praesto sunt, frigore pulsae recedunt: ita falsi amici sereno tempore praesto sunt: simul atque fortunae hiemem viderint, evolant omnes - Lib. iv., ad Herenn. "They are like swallows, who fly off during the winter, and quit our cold climates; and do not return till the warm season: but as soon as the winter sets in, they are all off again." So Horace: -
Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos:Nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.
"As long as thou art prosperous, thou shalt have many friends: but who of them will regard thee when thou hast lost thy wealth?"
The poor is hated even of his own neighbour,.... As well as of strangers; that is, he is shy of him; he does not care to take any notice of him, or be friendly with him, lest he should be burdensome to him. Poverty brings a man into contempt and disgrace; the same man, in affluence and indigence, is respected or disrespected: this is true, as Gersom observes, of a man that is poor, whether in money or in knowledge, in his purse or in his understanding;
but the rich hath many friends; or, "many are the lovers of the rich" (r): for the sake of their riches; either for the sake of honour or profit, or because the rich want nothing of them, or because they themselves may gain something by them: this also is observed by the above Jewish commentator to be true of the rich in substance or in wisdom; but the former sense is best; for a wise man, if poor in the world, is but little regarded.
(r) "et amatores divitiis spissi", Schultens; "dilectores autem divitis multi sunt", Piscator. "Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos", Ovid. Trist. Eleg. 8. "Dat census honores, census amicitias", ib. Fasti, l. 1. so Phocylides, v. 925, 926.
Friendship in the world is governed by self-interest. It is good to have God our Friend; he will not desert us.
This sad but true picture of human nature is not given approvingly, but only as a fact.
Three proverbs on the hatred of men:
20 The poor is hated even by his neighbour;
But of those who love the rich there are many.
This is the old history daily repeating itself. Among all people is the saying and the complaint:
Donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos,
Tempora si fuerint nubilia solus eris.
(Note: Ovid, Trist. i. 8.)
The Book of Proverbs also speaks of this lamentable phenomenon. It is a part of the dark side of human nature, and one should take notice of it, so that when it goes well with him, he may not regard his many friends as all genuine, and when he becomes poor, he may not be surprised by the dissolution of earlier friendship, but may value so much the higher exceptions to the rule. The connection of the passive with ל of the subject (cf. Proverbs 13:13), as in the Greek with the dative, is pure Semitic; sometimes it stands with מן, but in the sense of ἀπό, Song 3:10, before the influence of the West led to its being used in the sense of ὑπό (Ges. 143, 2); ישּׂנא, is hated (Cod. 1294: ישּׂנא, connects with the hatred which is directed against the poor also the indifference which makes him without sympathy, for one feels himself troubled by him and ashamed.
Hated - Despised and abandoned.
*More commentary available at chapter level.