Amsal 15:17

15:17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love ¹ 

than a fattened ox where there is hatred. ² 

Mazmur 37:16-17

37:16 The little bit that a godly man owns is better than

the wealth of many evil men, ³ 

37:17 for evil men will lose their power, ⁴ 

but the Lord sustains ⁵  the godly.

Amsal 13:8

13:8 The ransom ⁶  of a person’s ⁷  life is his wealth,

but the poor person hears no threat. ⁸ 

[15:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and love there.” This clause is a circumstantial clause introduced with vav, that becomes “where there is love.” The same construction is used in the second colon.

[15:17]  ² sn Again the saying concerns troublesome wealth: Loving relationships with simple food are better than a feast where there is hatred. The ideal, of course, would be loving family and friends with a great meal in addition, but this proverb is only comparing two things.

[37:16]  ³ tn Heb “Better [is] a little to the godly one than the wealth of many evil ones.” The following verses explain why this is true. Though a godly individual may seem to have only meager possessions, he always has what he needs and will eventually possess the land. The wicked may prosper for a brief time, but will eventually be destroyed by divine judgment and lose everything.

[37:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “for the arms of the evil ones will be broken.”

[37:17]  ⁵ tn The active participle here indicates this is characteristically true.

[13:8]  ⁶ sn As the word “ransom” (כֹּפֶר, cofer) indicates, the rich are susceptible to kidnapping and robbery. But the poor man pays no attention to blackmail – he does not have money to buy off oppressors. So the rich person is exposed to legal attacks and threats of physical violence and must use his wealth as ransom.

[13:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “the life of a man.”

[13:8]  ⁸ tn The term גְּעָרָה (gÿ’arah) may mean (1) “rebuke” (so KJV, NASB) or (2) “threat” (so NIV; cf. ASV, NRSV, NLT ). If “rebuke” is the sense here, it means that the burdens of society fall on the rich as well as the dangers. But the sense of “threat” better fits the context: The rich are threatened with extortion, but the poor are not (cf. CEV “the poor don’t have that problem”).