Bible Strands
Proverbs 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The wisdom author addresses a learner within a structured instruction on practical living, positioned between commands about child-rearing and warnings about sowing injustice.
The words — The Hebrew עָשִׁיר ('A.shir) literally denotes a rich [person], while לֹוֶה (lo.Veh) means a borrower, framing both wealth and debt as concrete social conditions.
The thread — This observation of economic subjugation echoes in narratives of debt bondage like 2 Kings 4:1 and Matthew 18:25, and aligns with the warning in Proverbs 22:16 that oppressing the poor or courting the rich leads to loss.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of how financial leverage creates hierarchical control, urging readers to avoid debt and recognize the practical dangers of economic dependency.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 4:1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”
- Matthew 18:25 Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.
- Proverbs 22:16 Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.
- Proverbs 14:31 Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.
- Proverbs 18:23 The poor man pleads for mercy, but the rich man answers harshly.
- Proverbs 22:22 Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate,
- James 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?
- James 5:1 Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- Nehemiah 5:4 Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.
- Amos 5:11 Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.