Proverbs 19:4

Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) The poor is separated from his neighbour.—Or, but the feeble, his friend separates himself (from him). It was just in order to counteract these selfish instincts of mankind that the merciful provisions of such passages as Deuteronomy 15:7. sqq., and Luke 14:13, were laid upon God’s people.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:3. Men run into troubles by their own folly, and then fret at the appointments of God. 4. Here we may see how strong is men's love of money. 5. Those that tell lies in discourse, are in a fair way to be guilty of bearing false-witness. 6. We are without excuse if we do not love God with all our hearts. His gifts to us are past number, and all the gifts of men to us are fruits of his bounty. 7. Christ was left by all his disciples; but the Father was with him. It encourages our faith that he had so large an experience of the sorrows of poverty. 8. Those only love their souls aright that get true wisdom. 9. Lying is a damning, destroying sin. 10. A man that has not wisdom and grace, has no right or title to true joy. It is very unseemly for one who is a servant to sin, to oppress God's free-men.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The non-wisdom which, having brought about disasters by its own perverseness, then turns round and "fretteth," i. e., angrily complains against the Providence of God.

Perverteth - Rather, "overturneth," "maketh to fail."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. (Compare Pr 14:20). Such facts are often adduced with implied disapprobation.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Is disowned and forsaken by those who are most obliged to help him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wealth maketh many friends,.... Or "adds" (f); it increases the number of them: so the poet (g), "donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos"; and to this agrees what the wise man says, Proverbs 14:20;

but the poor is separated from his neighbour; or "friend" (h); he will not visit him as he did in his prosperity, nor suffer him to come into his house or company, or come near him; he is separated from his affection, friendship, and presence: so another poet (i),

"if thou art rich, thou wilt have many friends; but, if poor, few.''

(f) "addit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (g) Ovid. (h) "ab amico sua", Pagninus, Montanus, Baynus, Junius & Tremeliius, Piscator, Michaelis; "a sodali sua", Schultens. (i) Theognis.

Geneva Study Bible

Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. maketh] Rather, addeth; προστίθησι, LXX.; addunt (divitiæ), Vulg.; the contrast being between the new friends gained by wealth, and the existing friend (R.V.) lost by poverty, ὁ δὲ πτωχὸς καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑπάρχοντος φίλου λείπεται, LXX.; A paupere autem et hi, quos habuit, separantur, Vulg.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Wealth maketh many friends (vers. 6, 7; Proverbs 14:20). A Greek gnome expresses the same truth -

Ἐὰν δ ἔχωμεν χρήμαθ ἕξομεν φίλους. The poor is separated from his neighbour. But it is better to make the act of separation emanate from the friend (as the Hebrew allows), and to render, with the Revised Version, The friend of the poor separateth himself from him. The word for "poor" is here dal, which means "feeble," "languid;" so ver. 17; and the came word (rea), "friend" or "neighbor," is used in both clauses. The idea of man's selfishness is carried on in vers. 6 and 7. The Law of Moses had tried to counteract it (Deuteronomy 15:7, etc.), but it was Christianity that introduced the practical realization of the law of love, and the honouring of the poor as members of Christ. Septuagint, "But the poor is deserted even by his whilom friend." Proverbs 19:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

4 Wealth bringeth many friends;

   But the reduced - his friend separateth himself.

The very same contrast, though otherwise expressed, we had at Proverbs 14:20. Regarding הון, vid., vol. i, p. 63. דל is the tottering, or he who has fallen into a tottering condition, who has no resources, possesses no means. The accentuation gives Mugrash to the word (according to which the Targ. translates), for it is not the subject of יפּרד: the reduced is separated (pass. Niph.) by his misfortunes, or must separate himself (reflex. Niph.) from his friend (מרעהוּ, as Ecclesiastes 4:4, prae socio suo); but subject of the virtual pred. מרעהוּ יפּרד: the reduced - his friend (מרעהו, as Proverbs 19:7) separates himself, i.e., (according to the nature of the Semitic substantival clause) he is such (of such a fate) that his friend sets himself free, whereby ממּנּוּ may be omitted as self-obvious; נפרד means one who separates himself, Proverbs 18:1. If we make דל the subject of the separatur, then the initiative of the separation from the friend is not expressed.