Proverbs 22:1
A good name is better than great riches: and good favour is above silver and gold.
Open Proverbs 22:1 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Melius est nomen bonum quam divitiæ multæ ; super argentum et aurum gratia bona.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- αἱρετώτερον ὄνομα καλὸν ἢ πλοῦτος πολύς· ὑπὲρ δὲ ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον χάρις ἀγαθή.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- נִבְחָ֣ר שֵׁ֭ם מֵעֹ֣שֶׁר רָ֑ב מִכֶּ֥סֶף וּ֝מִזָּהָ֗ב חֵ֣ן טֽוֹב
Haydock's commentary
Good. Hebrew, "a name," or reputation. (Haydock)
It is preferable to riches, but not to be compared with virtue, which is the only solid good; and even to be placed above riches, it must be well grounded. (Calmet)
Favour with all. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory Thaumaturgus A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter VII
For though a man should be by no means greatly advantaged by knowing all in this life that is destined to befall him according to his mind (let us suppose such a case), nevertheless with the officious activity of men he devises means for prying into and gaining an apparent acquaintance with the things that are to happen after a person’s death. Moreover, a good name is more pleasant to the mind than oil to the body; and the end of life is better than the birth, and to mourn is more desirable than to revel, and to be with the sorrowing is better than to be with the drunken. For this is the fact, that he who comes to the end of life has no further care about aught around him. And discreet anger is to be preferred to laughter; for by the severe disposition of countenance the soul is kept upright. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily III on Rom. i. 18
“Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Here he showeth that the ways of ungodliness are many, and that of truth, one. For error is a thing various and multiform and compound, but the truth is one. And after speaking of doctrines he speaks of life, mentioning the unrighteousness of men. For there be various kinds of unrighteousness also. One is in money affairs, as when any one deals unrighteously by his neighbor in these; and another in regard to women, when a man leaves his own wife, and breaks in upon the marriage of another. For St. Paul calls this also defrauding, saying thus, “That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in the matter.” ( 1 Thess. iv. 6 .) Others again injure not the wife or property, but the reputation of their neighbor, and this too is unrighteousness. For “a good name is better than great riches.” ( Prov. …