Proverbs 19:7

All the relatives ¹  of a poor person hate him; ²  how much more do his friends avoid him – he pursues them ³  with words, but they do not respond. ⁴ 

biblegateway Pro 19:7

A poor man is shunned by all his relatives—how much more do his friends avoid him! Though he pursues them with pleading, they are nowhere to be found.

biblegateway Pro 19:7

All the brothers of a poor man hate him; How much more do his friends abandon him! He pursues them with words, but they are gone.

biblegateway Pro 19:7

If the relatives of the poor despise them, how much more will their friends avoid them. The poor call after them, but they are gone.

biblegateway Pro 19:7

When you're down on your luck, even your family avoids you--yes, even your best friends wish you'd get lost. If they see you coming, they look the other way--out of sight, out of mind.

SABDAweb Pro 19:7

All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how much more do his friends go far from him! …

bibleoremus Pro 19:7

If the poor are hated even by their kin, how much more are they shunned by their friends! When they call after them, they are not there.

biblegateway Pro 19:7

All the brothers of the poor hate him; How much more do his friends go far from him! He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him .

biblegateway Pro 19:7

All the relatives ¹  of a poor person hate him; ²  how much more do his friends avoid him – he pursues them ³  with words, but they do not respond. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “brothers,” but not limited only to male siblings in this context.

² tn Heb “hate him.” The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) may be nuanced “reject” here (metonymy of effect, cf. CEV). The kind of “dislike” or “hatred” family members show to a poor relative is to have nothing to do with him (NIV “is shunned”). If relatives do this, how much more will the poor person’s friends do so.

³ tn The direct object “them” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

⁴ tn Heb “not they.” The last line of the verse is problematic. The preceding two lines are loosely synonymous in their parallelism, but the third adds something like: “he pursues [them with] words, but they [do] not [respond].” Some simply say it is a corrupt remnant of a separate proverb and beyond restoration. The basic idea does make sense, though. The idea of his family and friends rejecting the poor person reveals how superficial they are, and how they make themselves scarce. Since they are far off, he has to look for them “with words” (adverbial accusative), that is, “send word” for help. But they “are nowhere to be found” (so NIV). The LXX reads “will not be delivered” in place of “not they” – clearly an attempt to make sense out of the cryptic phrase, and, in the process, showing evidence for that text.