He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.
(He that is) despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread. He who is low in pretensions, through lowliness of disposition, and through avoiding ostentatious display, and who at the same time "hath a servant," and therefore hath some means of livelihood, is preferable to him who boasts himself, making a great display, while all the while not having the necessaries of life, through his wasting his money on pomp. The Hebrew for "despised" ( niqleh (H7034)) is distinct from that in Proverbs 12:8 ( buwz (H937)): here the reference is to low estimation not through faultiness but from absence of worldly display: as David calls himself (1 Samuel 18:23) "a poor man, and lightly esteemed" (the same Hebrew as here): in Proverbs 12:8 the reference is to contempt well grounded, because of perversity.