Wealth is not everything. We should not put our trust in it (Proverbs 18:12). And yet, we should not despise wealth. Having wealth has benefits. Like a strong city, it can help us to stay safe from many evils. Poverty can be the “ruin” of the poor—it brings many evils (for examples of these evils, see Proverbs 14:20; Proverbs 18:23; Proverbs 19:7; Proverbs 22:7).
These are the facts and Solomon states them for us, without saying that he approves of them. From the Old Testament we know that poverty was not always the poor person’s fault; many times, poor people were innocent victims of oppression.
15 A rich man’s wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.