Proverbs 22:7

22:7 The rich rule over ¹  the poor,

and the borrower is servant ²  to the lender.

[22:7]  ¹ sn The proverb is making an observation on life. The synonymous parallelism matches “rule over” with “servant” to show how poverty makes people dependent on, or obligated to, others.

[22:7]  ² tn Or “slave” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, CEV). This may refer to the practice in Israel of people selling themselves into slavery to pay off debts (Exod 21:2-7).