Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Better (is) the poor that walketh in his integrity, than (he that is) perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Honourable poverty is preferable to ill-gotten or ill-used wealth. The Hebrew for "fool" х kªciyl (H3684)] implies the fatness and crassitude which accompany, wealth. "The poor that walketh in his integrity" also talketh in a manner free from 'perversity,' and therefore is no "fool," but a wise man; and conversely, by the law that each clause is to be supplied from the other parallel clause, He that is not poor but rich, and that is "perverse in his lips," also "walketh" not "in integrity." The poor, though men of integrity are despised: the rich, though perverse, and therefore fools, are esteemed wise, and their lot is desired. The reverse is the true light in which to regard them respectively.