Chapter 19 contains twenty-nine couplets and runs across wealth, poverty, false witness, anger, parenting, and the relationship between human planning and divine sovereignty.
The chapter opens with a direct comparison: better is the poor who walks in integrity than the one who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Then one of the chapter's most psychologically acute observations: the foolishness of man perverts his way, and his heart frets against the LORD, people create their own problems and then blame God for them.
On wealth and poverty: wealth makes many friends, but the poor is separated from his neighbour. All the brothers of the poor hate him, how much more do his friends go far from him? He pursues them with words, yet they are not to be found. This is a blunt observation about the social isolation that comes with financial hardship, not a moral judgment, but a description of how people actually behave.
On giving to the poor: he that has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, and what he has given will God repay. Generosity to the needy is described not as charity but as a transaction with God, a loan that God himself will honour.
On anger and its management: the discretion of a man defers his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment.
On a prudent wife: house and riches are the inheritance of fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD, she is not something a man acquires by his own effort but a gift from God.
A slothful man hides his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth, the laziness is so extreme it impairs even basic self-care.
On divine sovereignty and human plans: there are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand. The fear of the LORD tends to life; he that has it shall abide satisfied and shall not be visited with evil.
The chapter closes with a warning: judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.
Coming Up in Chapter 20
Next, Solomon confronts work and appetite: wine mocks, the sluggard invents excuses, and counsel in the heart must be drawn out like water from a deep well Chapter 20 contains thirty couplets spanning alcohol, work ethic, honesty in commerce, vengeance, divine oversight, and the seasons of life. It opens with a warning about alcohol: wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whoever.
