15:16

This proverb compares the living situation of two people. The situation of the person in 15:16a is better than the situation of the person in 15:16b. Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

16a Better a little with the fear of the LORD

16b than great treasure with turmoil.

The first line describes a poor person who fears the LORD. This person’s situation in life is better than the situation of a very rich person who is worried.

This is another four-part “better than” proverb. This proverb has the following pattern:

It is better to have A (bad/undesirable situation) + B (very good/desirable situation)

than to have C (good/desirable situation) + D (very bad/undesirable situation)

For 15:16, the four parts are:

A: a poor person (undesirable)

B: fears the LORD (very desirable)

C: a very rich person (desirable)

D: worry (very undesirable)

See the note on 12:9 for more details on this kind of proverb. For other ways to translate this verse, see the General Comment on 15:16a–b after the note on 15:16b.

15:16a

Better a little with the fear of the LORD: The phrase translated as a little contrasts with “great treasure,” so it refers here to “little wealth” or “few possessions.” In other words, it refers to a poor person.

For fear of the LORD, see the note on 10:27a.

15:16b

than great treasure with turmoil: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as turmoil refers to inward turmoil, anxiety or worry.

General Comment on 15:16a–b

Some other ways to translate this verse are:

16a Better to have little and with it fear of Yahweh 16b than immense wealth and with it anxiety. (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
16a It is better to be poor and respect the LORD 16b than to be rich and have many worries.

In some languages, it may be difficult to express a complex comparison in one sentence. Another way to translate it is to divide this verse into two sentences. You may need to change the order of the parallel parts. For example:

16a The situation of a person who respects and obeys the LORD is very good, even though he is poor.

16b As for a rich person with much to worry about, his situation is not good.

© 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.