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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 14:20 - 14:20
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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 לְ of the subject (cf. Pro 13:13), as in the Greek with the dative, is pure Semitic; sometimes it stands with מִן, but in the sense of ἀπό, Son 3:10, before the influence of the West led to its being used in the sense of ὑπό (Ges. §143, 2); יִשָּׂנֵא, is hated (Cod. 1294: יִשָּׂנֶא, 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.