22:1

The overall meaning of this proverb is that a good reputation is more valuable or important than great wealth. It does not imply that having wealth is bad or undesirable. Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

1a
A good name is more desirable than great riches ;

1b
favor is better than silver and gold.

In Hebrew, there is an ellipsis in 22:1b. The Berean Standard Bible has supplied the phrase “is better” for the sake of more natural English.

In Hebrew, the parallel parts in 22:1b form a chiasm. They occur in the opposite order from the parallel parts in 22:1a. The Hebrew order is literally:

than silver and than gold good favor

You will need to decide if a chiasm is natural in your language.

22:1a

A good name is more desirable than great riches: In Hebrew, this clause is literally “A name ⌊is to be⌋ chosen more than great wealth.” The Berean Standard Bible has supplied the word good from the parallel Hebrew phrase “good favor” in 22:1b. In this context, it means that a good reputation is more valuable or important for a person to have than much wealth. Some other ways to translate this clause are:

Being respected is more important than having great riches. (New Century Version)
-or-
Repute is preferable to great wealth (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)

22:1b

favor is better than silver and gold: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as favor is literally “good favor.” It refers to the approval and respect that a person receives from other people. Some other ways to translate this clause are:

To be well thought of is better than silver or gold. (New Century Version)
-or-
Respect is better than silver or gold. (God’s Word)

General Comment on 22:1a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to reorder and/or combine the parallel parts in these two lines. For example:

If you have to choose between a good reputation and great wealth, choose a good reputation. (Good News Translation)
-or-
A good reputation and respect are worth much more than silver and gold. (Contemporary English Version)

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.