I’ve decided that anyone who thinks that Job and Ecclesiastes are “correctives” or “qualifiers” to the book of Proverbs really hasn’t paid attention to what Proverbs really says (or doesn’t say).

Consider Proverbs 10.15:

A rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

Seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?

But the proverb is semi-repeated in 18.11:

A rich man’s wealth is his strong city,
and like a high wall in his imagination.

Not quite as positive a statement, is it? But what if this couplet is not meant to stand alone? Then the negativity is even stronger:

The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
A rich man’s wealth is his strong city,
and like a high wall in his imagination.
Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty,
but humility comes before honor.

Jesus’ parable of the rich fool (fool!) virtually writes itself from Proverbs 18.10-12.

So go back to 10.15:

The wise lay up knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.
A rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
the poverty of the poor is their ruin.
The wage of the righteous leads to life,
the gain of the wicked to sin.

Is the statement in the middle meant to be taken at face value, or are we intended to question it in light of the true wealth that is knowledge (that you save, like money) or the true wage that is life?

And are we intended to go back and rethink 10.15 in light of 18.11?

It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out (Proverbs 25.2).