Proverbs 12:9 (BSB)

Better to be lightly esteemed yet have a servant, than to be self-important but lack food.

From Proverbs 12. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 12:9

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 12:9: Note, 1. It is the folly of some that they covet to make a great figure abroad, take place, and take state, as persons of quality, and yet want necessaries at home, and, if their debts were paid, would not be worth a morsel of bread, nay, perhaps, pinch their bellies to put it on their backs, that they may appear very gay, because fine feathers make fine birds. 2.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 12:9: He that is despised, and hath a servant,.... Meaning not the same person as before, but one in mean circumstances of life; and because he has not that substance as others have, at least does not make that show and figure in the world as some; and mean in his own eyes, as Jarchi; and does not affect grandeur, and to look greater than he...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 12:9: despised--held in little repute, obscure (Sa1 18:23; Isa 3:5). hath a servant--implying some means of honest living. honoureth himself--is self-conceited.
• Geneva Bible Notes (Reformed), Geneva Bible Study Notes on Proverbs 12:9: [He that is] despised, and hath a servant, [is] better than he that honoureth himself, and is destitute of bread. (c) The poor man that is contemned and yet lives of his own travail.