Wealth and Poverty: System and Contradiction in Proverbs

The book of Proverbs is often thought to represent a simplistic dogmatism concerning acts and consequences and a just world order. This article analyses sayings concerning wealth and poverty in relation to righteousness and wickedness to show that Proverbs presents systematic contradictions on these topics. These contradictions embody fundamental tensions in the structure of Yahwistic faith and anticipate the problem literature of Job and Qoheleth.