Hebrew word · H7389

רֵישׁ

rish

poverty

Poverty, want, destitution. It comes from rûš, 'to be poor', and the participle rāš means 'a poor man'. Apart from one possible occurrence elsewhere, it appears only in Proverbs, also spelled rēʾš.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

poverty

Also means: rish (רִישׁ "poverty" H7389B)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 28:19

Range of meaning

Poverty, want, destitution. It comes from rûš, 'to be poor', and the participle rāš means 'a poor man'. Apart from one possible occurrence elsewhere, it appears only in Proverbs, also spelled rēʾš.

Against the English

All versions say 'poverty'. KJV's 'poverty enough' is old idiom for 'plenty of poverty' and keeps the irony.

Used elsewhere in the period

Proverbs 6:11 and 24:34: 'your poverty will come like a robber' to the sluggard. 10:15: 'the ruin of the poor is their poverty'. 30:8: 'give me neither poverty nor riches'.

From the study of Proverbs 30:8

Range of meaning

Resh (also rish, from the verb rush, "be poor") means destitution: not having enough. Proverbs uses it for the poverty that comes on a lazy person "like a robber" (6:11; 24:34), and also for the plain vulnerability of the poor (10:15: "the ruin of the poor is their poverty"). 'Osher is wealth or riches: abundance, security, standing.

Against the English

"Poverty" and "riches" are good equivalents. The one risk is reading "riches" as morally suspect in itself. Proverbs elsewhere treats wealth as a real good that can come with wisdom (3:16; 8:18; 22:4). Agur's worry is not that money is evil but what each extreme does to a person's relationship with God, as verse 9 explains.

Used elsewhere in the period

Both words appear throughout Proverbs. The fear that being full leads to forgetting God goes back to Deuteronomy: "when you have eaten and are full... then your heart will be lifted up and you will forget the LORD" (Deuteronomy 8:12-14; compare 31:20; 32:15; Hosea 13:6).

From the study of Proverbs 10:15

Range of meaning

Poverty, want, from the verb rûš, "to be poor." The noun appears almost only in Proverbs (6:11; 10:15; 13:18; 24:34; 28:19; 30:8; 31:7).

Against the English

"Poverty" is an accurate rendering.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 6:11 and 24:34: poverty comes "like a robber" on the sluggard. Prov 30:8 is the prayer "give me neither poverty nor riches." Prov 31:7: strong drink lets the perishing "forget their poverty."

Where it appears

Proverbs · 7

  1. Proverbs 6:11 רֵאשֶׁ֑ךָ poverty your

    and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

    Here: Poverty, destitution: a word found almost only in Proverbs. It is spelled here with the same consonants as 'head' but is a separate word. The 'your' matters. It is the sluggard's own poverty, the kind he has brought on himself.

  2. Proverbs 10:15 רֵישָֽׁם׃ poverty their

    The wealth of the rich man is his fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

    Here: "Their poverty": the state of lacking means. The suffix "their" mirrors "his" in line one. The rich man's own wealth protects him, and the poor man's own lack is what brings him down.

  3. Proverbs 13:18 רֵ֣ישׁ poverty

    Poverty and shame come to him who ignores discipline, but whoever heeds correction is honored.

    Here: Material want, being without means. It comes first for emphasis. The line opens with the outcome before it names who ends up there.

  4. Proverbs 24:34 רֵישֶׁ֑ךָ poverty your

    and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

  5. Proverbs 28:19 רִֽישׁ׃ poverty

    The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

    Here: Want, destitution. This word occurs almost only in Proverbs. It takes the place where the reader expects 'bread', and the oxymoron 'stuffed with poverty' is the punchline.

  6. Proverbs 30:8 רֵ֣אשׁ poverty

    Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.

    Here: Real want: being without the means to live. It is a wisdom-book word (Proverbs 6:11; 10:15; 24:34). It is spelled here with an aleph, a spelling variant of the usual resh/rish.

  7. Proverbs 31:7 רִישׁ֑וֹ poverty his

    Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

    Here: "His poverty": material want and the lack of means that comes with it. In Proverbs it is a real social condition, not a feeling, and wise people pray to be kept from it (30:8).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.