Poverty
Proverbs treats poverty with plain realism, and it does not say every poor person is to blame. Some verses warn that idleness and excess lead there: “a little sleep, a little slumber” and want arrives like an armed man. Others say that “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith,” and that wealth is no shelter for everyone, since the destruction of the poor is their poverty. Those lines sit beside the Bible’s repeated call to care for the poor. Begin with Proverbs 6:6-11 and Proverbs 15:16, then read how elsewhere Scripture asks the better-off to give.
10 verses
Proverbs
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.
He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.
Ecclesiastes
Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.