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15 The wealth of the rich is their strong city;
    the ruin of the poor is their poverty.[a]
16 The labor of the just leads to life,
    the gains of the wicked, to futility.[b](A)
17 Whoever follows instruction is in the path to life,
    but whoever disregards reproof goes astray.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 10:15 An observation rather than a moral evaluation of wealth and poverty; but cf. 18:10–11.
  2. 10:16 Wages are a metaphor for reward and punishment. The Hebrew word does not mean “sin” here but falling short, a meaning that is frequent in Proverbs. Cf. Rom 6:1: “But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”