Abbreviations; Introduction; Section A. PROVERBS 10.1-22.16 AND 25-29; Section B. OTHER COLLECTIONS OF SHORT PROVERBS; Section C. PROVERBS 22.17-24.22; Section D. PROVERBS 1-9; Section E. PROVERBS 31.1-9; Section F. PROVERBS 31.10-31; Section G. WEALTH AND POVERTY IN THE BOOK OF PROVERBS; Bibliography; Index of Biblical References; Index of Authors
This is not a sociological study in the technical sense. Its aim is simply to review the internal evidence of a single Old Testament book about attitudes towards what is now universally recognized as one of the most serious problems facing the world today: the unequal distribution of this world's goods. The study shows that there are some fundamental assumptions common to all sections of Proverbs: that wealth, unless acquired by dishonest or unscrupulous means, is a good rather than an evil, and that poverty as a feature of society is an evil which may to some extent be alleviated in particula