Proverbs Chapter 19 verse 1 Holy Bible
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity Than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
read chapter 19 in ASV
Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are twisted.
read chapter 19 in BBE
Better is a poor [man] that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
read chapter 19 in DARBY
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
read chapter 19 in KJV
read chapter 19 in WBT
Better is the poor who walks in his integrity Than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
read chapter 19 in WEB
Better `is' the poor walking in his integrity, Than the perverse `in' his lips, who `is' a fool.
read chapter 19 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - Better is the poor that walkth in his integrity. The word for "poor" is, here and in vers. 7, 22, rash, which signifies "poor" in opposition to "rich." In the present reading of the second clause, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool, there seems to be a failure in antithesis, unless we can understand the fool as a rich fool. This, the repetition of the maxim in Proverbs 28:6 ("Than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich"), would lead one to admit. The Vulgate accordingly has, Quam dives torquem labia sua, et insipiens, "Than a rich man who is of perverse lips and a fool." With this the Syriac partly agrees. So that, if we take this reading, the moralist says that the poor man who lives a guileless, innocent life, content with his lot, and using no wrong means to improve his fortunes, is happier and better than the rich man who is hypocritical in his words and deceives others, and has won his wealth by such means, thus proving himself to be a fool, a morally bad man. But if we content ourselves with the Hebrew text, we must find the antithesis in the simple, pious, poor man, contrasted with the arrogant rich man, who sneers at his poor neighbour as an inferior creature. The writer would seem to insinuate that there is a natural connection between poverty and integrity of life on the one hand, and wealth and folly on the other. He would assent to the sweeping assertion, Omnis dives ant iniquus aut iniqui heres, "Every rich man is either a rascal or a rascal's heir."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXIX.(1) Perverse in his lips.--One who distorts the truth; translated "froward" in Proverbs 4:24. That a rich man is here intended appears likely from the parallel passage in Proverbs 28:6.