Proverbs 19:22

What is desirable ¹  for a person is to show loyal love, ²  and a poor person is better than a liar. ³ 

1Ch 29:2,3,17; 2Ch 6:8; Job 6:15; Job 17:5; Ps 62:9; Pr 19:1; Mr 12:41-44; Mr 14:6-8; 2Co 8:2,3,12; Tit 1:2

¹ tn Heb “the desire of a man” (so KJV). The noun in construct is תַּאֲוַת (ta’avat), “desire [of].” Here it refers to “the desire of a man [= person].” Two problems surface here, the connotation of the word and the kind of genitive. “Desire” can also be translated “lust,” and so J. H. Greenstone has “The lust of a man is his shame” (Proverbs, 208). But the sentence is more likely positive in view of the more common uses of the words. “Man” could be a genitive of possession or subjective genitive – the man desires loyal love. It could also be an objective genitive, meaning “what is desired for a man.” The first would be the more natural in the proverb, which is showing that loyal love is better than wealth.

² tn Heb “[is] his loyal love”; NIV “unfailing love”; NRSV “loyalty.”

³ sn The second half of the proverb presents the logical inference: The liar would be without “loyal love” entirely, and so poverty would be better than this. A poor person who wishes to do better is preferable to a person who makes promises and does not keep them.