A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favour is better than silver or gold.
The rich and the poor meet together;
the Lord is the maker of them all.
The prudent sees danger and hides himself,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.
The reward for humility and fear of the Lord
is riches and honour and life.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;
whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.Proverbs 22:1-5
The first 16 verses of this chapter conclude the section of the book that began at 10:1. From 22:17-24:34 we have 'The words of the wise', which are again followed by more of Solomon's utterances (25:1-29:27). In 1, the contrast is between treasure on earth and treasure in heaven. Kidner says, 'Not the power we yield, but the love in which we are held, is our proper joy'. Character is the only thing we will take with us, so we should aim to have that to 'go home' with. This is the true riches. And, we should note well there is a freedom of choice in this: it is open to us to win a good name. There is one sense in which the statement in 2a is not true, for a great gulf is fixed between the rich and the poor. But in the really significant issues they do meet - in the matter of a good name, for example, one's possessions mean precisely nothing. Quality is everything. In extremities of illness, woe and death, there is also only one level, and rich and poor meet there, as they do also at the Cross where repentance is concerned. The statement in 3 should be applied to the matter of hasty ill-considered action. The prudent man can look ahead and see the possible consequences of an action that he might take and seeing them take steps to adjust matters and prevent himself making a wrong move. This is wisdom; and it is the veriest folly to forge ahead unthinkingly without considering the consequences of doing so. Some people learn only the hard way. 4 and 5 seem to belong together, and present a contrast in ways and ends. 'Riches' in 4 can be taken in either a literal or a metaphorical sense, the thought is similar to that in 1: a 'good name' is honour and life too. 5 is true because there is a moral order in the universe. The world is so constituted that the way of the transgressor is hard.