⁴ Wealth makes a great number of friends; but the poor man is parted from his friend.

²⁰ The poor man is hated even by his neighbour, but the man of wealth has numbers of friends.

⁶ Great numbers will make attempts to get the approval of a ruler: and every man is the special friend of him who has something to give.

⁷ All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how much more do his friends go far from him! ...

¹³ And not long after, the younger son got together everything which was his and took a journey into a far-away country, and there all his money went in foolish living.

¹⁴ And when everything was gone, there was no food to be had in that country, and he was in need.

¹⁵ And he went and put himself into the hands of one of the people of that country, and he sent him into his fields to give the pigs their food.

¹⁵ My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in the valleys which come to an end:

¹⁶ Which are dark because of the ice, and the snow falling into them;

¹⁷ Under the burning sun they are cut off, and come to nothing because of the heat.

¹⁸ The camel-trains go out of their way; they go up into the waste and come to destruction.

¹⁹ The camel-trains of Tema were searching with care, the bands of Sheba were waiting for them:

²⁰ They were put to shame because of their hope; they came and their hope was gone.

²¹ So have you now become to me; you see my sad condition and are in fear.

²² Did I say, Give me something? or, Make a payment for me out of your wealth?

²³ Or, Get me out of the power of my hater? or, Give money so that I may be free from the power of the cruel ones?

¹³ He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

¹⁴ My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

¹⁵ I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.

¹⁶ At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.

¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.

¹⁵ The property of the man of wealth is his strong town: the poor man's need is his destruction.