Better is little with the fear of Jehovah than great store and disquietude therewith.
This verse sets two lives side by side and settles which one is richer. One has almost nothing, but lives in the fear of the LORD. The other has piles of treasure, with unrest packed in alongside.
The word "better" runs through this whole chapter. One commentator traces it saying by saying:
A soft answer that turns away wrath is better than harsh words (verse 1)... Better is the prayer of the upright than the sacrifice of the wicked (verse 8)... Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it (verse 16). This fits many in our own days.
Everything turns on one phrase, and it does not mean terror:
The word "fear" means a godly fear, reverence. Proverbs mentions this fear of the Lord fourteen times. This childlike reverence is the beginning of knowledge, and young people today sadly lack it. There is no true knowledge apart from the fear of the Lord. It means to acknowledge the Lord, and to adore and worship Him. It means to bow in faith to what He has revealed, and to put that above everything else.
Another writer shows what this fear does: it keeps everyone in the right place.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." It keeps God in His place, and man in his own place. That is the simple key to true understanding.
The verse does not pretend a small income is a large one. The deciding factor is not the size of the amount:
If what you own is small, God can still bless a little. It is not how much money we have, but how much blessing... a dinner of green herbs, where love is, is sweet; I may add, where the love of God is. Another may own more than you, but he also carries more worry: more riches, less rest; more income, but also more reasons to spend... he holds more, but enjoys less; in a word, you have less gold than he, perhaps less guilt.
The verse does not say trouble follows treasure. The trouble arrives with it:
Prosperity has its honey, and also its sting. Anxious care is the evil spirit that haunts the rich man; when his chests are full of money, his heart is full of care... If we have less food, we have less snare; if less dignity, less danger. As we lack the rich provisions of the world, so we lack the temptations... A walking stick may help a traveller, but a bundle of sticks will be a burden to him.
The same writer asks what money can do once the storm hits:
Whatever cannot quiet the heart in a storm cannot make a man blessed. Pile up earthly things, and they still cannot rock the troubled heart quiet. So they cannot make anyone blessed. When Saul was in deep distress, could all the jewels of his crown comfort him? "They cast their silver into the streets... Silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD" (Ezek. 7:19).
One commentator has watched this proverb prove true again and again, and adds a small scene worth remembering:
How often this has proven true. It is far better to have little in the way of possessions, along with the fear of the Lord, than to have great wealth with the headaches and troubles that come with it (v. 16)... One old man told how he and his wife once had only a turnip for a meal. He said he never thanked the Lord more warmly for food than at that moment.
Another writer reads this verse together with the one that follows. Behind both he finds the same pair: the fear of the LORD, and love. (He renders "trouble" as "disquiet.")
Then one proves that "better is little with the fear of Jehovah than great treasure and disquiet with it," and "better a meal of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it." The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom. And many waters cannot quench "love"; neither can floods drown it. Love, as the New Testament says, binds everything together in perfect harmony.
- Better. The word runs through the whole chapter — a soft answer, an upright prayer, a little with the fear of the LORD. Each time, God's scale disagrees with the world's.
- Fear. This is reverence, not fright. It means acknowledging God, bowing to His word, and putting it first. Real knowledge starts there.
- Little. The question is never how much you have, but how much blessing rests on it. More income often means more worry, less rest, and more reasons to spend.
- Trouble. Wealth does not attract trouble later. The trouble comes bundled in with it. Full chests, full heart of care — and silver that cannot quiet a storm or deliver in the day of wrath.
- Proved. This is not theory. A man with a turnip on the table gave thanks more warmly than ever before. The verse holds up in real life.
Better is a meal of herbs where love is, than a fatted ox and hatred therewith.
The verse sets two dinners side by side. One is cheap greens. The other is the best beef a household could serve. What decides between them is not the food but what fills the room: love at one table, hatred at the other.
Chapter 15 keeps weighing one thing against another, and this verse sits in the middle of the run. One commentator lays the sequence out in a line:
Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it (verse 16). This fits many in our own days. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fattened ox and hatred with it (verse 17). Better it is to be slow to anger than wrathful (verse 18).
The word behind "dinner" is not the word for a feast. A Bible dictionary gives its sense:
aruchah, 'allowance.' Any meal of herbs where there is love is better than a fattened ox with hatred. Prov. 15:17.
One writer takes verse 16 and verse 17 together, and names what each one rests on:
Then one proves that "better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it," and that "better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it." The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Many waters cannot quench "love," and floods cannot drown it. Love, as the New Testament says, is the bond of perfectness.
A small income is not the whole story. A commentator points to what God can do with a little, and stretches the word "love" past affection between people:
If you own little, God can still bless a little. It is not how much money we have, but how much blessing... Be content that a blessing has fallen on it like dew. A dinner of green herbs, where love is, is sweet — and I would add, where the love of God is. Another may own more than you, but carry more worry; more riches, less rest... in a word, you have less gold than he, perhaps less guilt.
Can a poor meal still bring real thanks? One commentator answers with a story:
Suppose only herbs are on the table for dinner. If love is there, this is much better than the finest meal eaten with hatred! (v. 17). One old man told how he and his wife once had only a turnip for a meal. He said he never thanked the Lord for food more warmly than he did that day!
Two tables mean two kinds of home. Another writer takes the picture into family life and sets the menu aside:
It is not a question of rank, position or wealth, but of the beautiful grace of God shining out in all. There may be the fattened ox, or the dinner of herbs. That is not the question here. What we press on every father and mother, and on all who lead a household — high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned — is this. They must train their children in an atmosphere of love and peace, truth and holiness, purity and kindness. Then their households will show the character of God in practice.
The second half of the verse seats people together who cannot stand each other. That will not last:
Love will be the perfume and music of heaven. As perfect love casts out fear, so it casts out envy and discord. Some Christians could not live at peace together on earth, and that was the blemish on their profession of faith. In heaven they will be all love. The fire of strife will die out. No one will insult or condemn another, or pick at another's old wounds. Love will tie them all together, heart to heart.
- Fear first. The verse before sets the pattern. A little with the fear of the Lord beats great treasure with trouble attached. Fear of the Lord is where wisdom starts.
- Love next. One writer calls love the bond of perfectness, and floods cannot drown it. No amount of money can replace it at a table.
- The table shows it. "Dinner" here means an allowance, a ration. A blessed little goes further than a large amount without blessing. More riches often mean less rest, and more gold sometimes means more guilt.
- The home proves it. Neither the fattened ox nor the plate of greens settles the matter. What settles it is the air the children grow up in. Where parents raise them in love and peace, the household shows the character of God.
- Heaven finishes it. Christians who could not live at peace together on earth will be all love there. The fire of strife will die out. So the poor meal with love at it is the better rehearsal for heaven.