pride

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The Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “pride” in English is translated as

  • “continually boasting” (Amganad Ifugao)
  • “lifting oneself up” (Tzeltal)
  • “answering haughtily” (Yucateco) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • “unbent neck” (like llamas) (Kaqchikel) (source: Nida 1952, p. 151)
  • “praising oneself, saying: I am better” (Shipibo-Conibo) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237).
  • “bigness of head” (existing idiom: girman kai) in the Hausa Common Language Bible it is idiomatically translated as or (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • “trying to make yourself the leader” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • “make oneself important” (sick upspeeln) in Low German (source: translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
  • “a haughty liver” in Yakan (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • “lift head” in Upper Guinea Crioulo (source: Nicoleti 2012, p. 78)

See also proud / arrogant and haughty / proud / heart exalted / exalt oneself above.

Translation commentary on Proverbs 16:19

“It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor”: “A lowly spirit” means “humble” or “lowly,” the opposite of “proud” or “arrogant.” “The poor” are people who suffer from lack of material goods and are the opposite of those in the second line who “divide the spoil”. New English Bible/Revised English Bible translate “the poor” as “those in need.” See the comments on 14.21. Contemporary English Version says “You are better off to be humble and poor. . ..”

“Than to divide the spoil with the proud”: “Divide the spoil” is a military expression referring to dividing the loot or goods taken from a defeated enemy. Here the expression means to be rich, having a share in the world’s wealth. “The proud” translates the same word as used in 15.25. See there for comments.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

complete verse (Proverbs 16:19)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 16:19:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person who humbles himself and eats with the poor is better
    than if/when he shares/enjoys things which are grabbed/robbed together with proud people.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “It is better to be poor without pride
    than to be proud of stolen property.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Better to live lowly/humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It-is-better to join a poor-person who is humble than to join-in-sharing wealth that a proud/arrogant person has snatched.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “It is better to be humble and poor
    than to associate with proud people and to become rich by dividing with them plunder/goods captured in a battle.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 16:19

16:19

This proverb compares the living situation of two people. The situation of the person in 16:19a is better than the situation of the person in 16:19b. Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

19a It s better to be lowly in spirit among the humble

19b than to divide the spoil with the proud.

See the note on 12:9 for more details on this kind of proverb. But notice that the parallel parts in this proverb occur in the opposite order. In 12:9 they do not. If a chiasm does not communicate the meaning effectively in your language, you may reorder the parallel parts in one line or the other. For example, you could reorder 16:19a to say:

19a Better to be among the oppressed and be lowly in spirit

With the chiastic word order, this proverb has the following pattern:

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

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

For 16:19, the four parts are:

B: to be humble/lowly (very desirable)

A: to be among poor/oppressed people (undesirable)

C: to share wealth (desirable)

D: to be among arrogant people (very undesirable)

The first line describes a humble person. Unfortunately, he is also poor and suffers hardship. This person’s situation in life is better than a wealthy person who is arrogant and gets his money dishonestly. The reason is that it is far more important to be humble than to be wealthy.

16:19a

among the humble: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as humble refers to people who are poor. It emphasizes that they suffer some kind of distress or disability. Because such people have low status in society, their lives are difficult. Others often oppress them. Some other ways to translate this word here are:

the poor (English Standard Version)
-or-
those who suffer (New Century Version)

See the note on 14:21b for more information on this word, including its textual variants.

16:19b

than to divide the spoil with the proud: The phrase divide the spoil is often used literally in a military context. There it refers to victorious soldiers. They share with each other the valuable things that they took from their defeated enemies.

Here it has a figurative meaning. It may simply mean to be rich, to be counted among people who share in having wealth. But this expression probably implies that the wealth has been gained by oppressing others. Another way to translate this line is:

than to share stolen goods with arrogant people (God’s Word)

This line means that someone, along with other arrogant people, owns stolen goods. It does not mean that someone generously shares with other arrogant people the things that he has stolen. The Good News Translation avoids the wrong meaning by saying:

than to be one of the arrogant and get a share of their loot (Good News Translation)

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