Proverbs 14:20

20 The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.

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Proverbs 14:20 in Other Translations

KJV

20 The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.

ESV

20 The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.

NLT

20 The poor are despised even by their neighbors, while the rich have many “friends.”

MSG

20 An unlucky loser is shunned by all, but everyone loves a winner.

CSB

20 A poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but there are many who love the rich.

Proverbs 14:20 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 14:20

The poor is hated even of his own neighbour
As well as of strangers; that is, he is shy of him; he does not care to take any notice of him, or be friendly with him, lest he should be burdensome to him. Poverty brings a man into contempt and disgrace; the same man, in affluence and indigence, is respected or disrespected: this is true, as Gersom observes, of a man that is poor, whether in money or in knowledge, in his purse or in his understanding; but the rich [hath] many friends;
or, "many [are] the lovers of the rich" ^F18: for the sake of their riches; either for the sake of honour or profit, or because the rich want nothing of them, or because they themselves may gain something by them: this also is observed by the above Jewish commentator to be true of the rich in substance or in wisdom; but the former sense is best; for a wise man, if poor in the world, is but little regarded.

FOOTNOTES:

F18 (Mybr ryve ybhaw) "et amatores divitiis spissi", Schultens; "dilectores autem divitis multi sunt", Piscator. "Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos", Ovid. Trist. Eleg. 8. "Dat census honores, census amicitias", ib. Fasti, l. 1. so Phocylides, v. 925, 926.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible