Proverbs 17:5

The one who mocks the poor ¹  insults ²  his Creator; whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.

Job 31:29; Ps 69:9; Pr 14:21,31; Pr 16:5; Pr 24:17,18; Jer 17:16; Ob 1:11-13,16; Ro 12:15; 1Jo 3:17

¹ sn The parallelism helps define the subject matter: The one who “mocks the poor” (NAB, NASB, NIV) is probably one who “rejoices [NIV gloats] over disaster.” The poverty is hereby explained as a disaster that came to some. The topic of the parable is the person who mocks others by making fun of their misfortune.

² sn The Hebrew word translated “insults” (חֵרֵף, kheref) means “reproach; taunt” (as with a cutting taunt); it describes words that show contempt for or insult God. The idea of reproaching the Creator may be mistaking and blaming God’s providential control of the world (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 337). W. G. Plaut, however, suggests that mocking the poor means holding up their poverty as a personal failure and thus offending their dignity and their divine nature (Proverbs, 187).