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Wealth makes many “friends”;
    poverty drives them all away.

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Wealth attracts many friends,
    but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them.(A)

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20 The poor are despised even by their neighbors,
    while the rich have many “friends.”

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20 The poor are shunned even by their neighbors,
    but the rich have many friends.(A)

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13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.

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13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth(A) in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.(B)

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Many seek favors from a ruler;
    everyone is the friend of a person who gives gifts!

The relatives of the poor despise them;
    how much more will their friends avoid them!
Though the poor plead with them,
    their friends are gone.

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Many curry favor with a ruler,(A)
    and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts.(B)

The poor are shunned by all their relatives—
    how much more do their friends avoid them!(C)
Though the poor pursue them with pleading,
    they are nowhere to be found.[a](D)

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 19:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.

13 “My relatives stay far away,
    and my friends have turned against me.
14 My family is gone,
    and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 My servants and maids consider me a stranger.
    I am like a foreigner to them.
16 When I call my servant, he doesn’t come;
    I have to plead with him!
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife.
    I am rejected by my own family.

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13 “He has alienated my family(A) from me;
    my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.(B)
14 My relatives have gone away;
    my closest friends(C) have forgotten me.
15 My guests(D) and my female servants(E) count me a foreigner;
    they look on me as on a stranger.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
    though I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
    I am loathsome(F) to my own family.

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15 My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook
    that overflows its banks in the spring
16     when it is swollen with ice and melting snow.
17 But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears.
    The brook vanishes in the heat.
18 The caravans turn aside to be refreshed,
    but there is nothing to drink, so they die.
19 The caravans from Tema search for this water;
    the travelers from Sheba hope to find it.
20 They count on it but are disappointed.
    When they arrive, their hopes are dashed.
21 You, too, have given no help.
    You have seen my calamity, and you are afraid.
22 But why? Have I ever asked you for a gift?
    Have I begged for anything of yours for myself?
23 Have I asked you to rescue me from my enemies,
    or to save me from ruthless people?

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15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,(A)
    as the streams that overflow
16 when darkened by thawing ice
    and swollen with melting snow,(B)
17 but that stop flowing in the dry season,
    and in the heat(C) vanish from their channels.
18 Caravans turn aside from their routes;
    they go off into the wasteland and perish.
19 The caravans of Tema(D) look for water,
    the traveling merchants of Sheba(E) look in hope.
20 They are distressed, because they had been confident;
    they arrive there, only to be disappointed.(F)
21 Now you too have proved to be of no help;
    you see something dreadful and are afraid.(G)
22 Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf,
    pay a ransom(H) for me from your wealth,(I)
23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy,
    rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?(J)

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15 The wealth of the rich is their fortress;
    the poverty of the poor is their destruction.

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15 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,(A)
    but poverty is the ruin of the poor.(B)

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