Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 25:21
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
A precept reproduced by Paul Rom 12:20; the second clause of which seems at first sight to suggest a motive incompatible with a true charity. Lev 16:12 suggests an explanation. The high priest on the Day of Atonement was to take his censer, to fill it with coals of fire, and then to put the incense thereon for a sweet-smelling savor. So it is here. The first emotion in another caused by the good done to him may be one of burning shame, but the shame will do its work and the heart also will burn, and prayer and confession and thanksgiving will rise as incense to the throne of God. Thus, we shall overcome evil with good.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. If thine enemy be hungry] See this and the next verse explained, Ro 12:20.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By bread and water he understands all things necessary for his subsistence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21, 22. (Compare Mat 5:44;Rom 12:20). As metals are meltedby heaping coals upon them, so is the heart softened by kindness.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat,…. Which includes all manner of food; whatever persons may have in their houses, that they should bring out and feed the hungry with, even though an enemy;
and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; which was what was usually and in common drank in those countries. These two, bread and water, take in all the necessaries of life; and giving them is expressive of all acts of beneficence and humanity to be performed to enemies; see 2Ki 6:22; or “drink to him”, so Pagninus and Montanus; which is still more expressive of respect and kindness.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: 22 For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
By this it appears that, however the scribes and Pharisees had corrupted the law, not only the commandment of loving our brethren, but even that of loving our enemies, was not only a new, but also an old commandment, an Old-Testament commandment, though our Saviour has given it to us with the new enforcement of his own great example in loving us when we were enemies. Observe, 1. How we must express our love to our enemies by the real offices of kindness, even those that are expensive to ourselves and most acceptable to them: “If they be hungry and thirsty, instead of pleasing thyself with their distress and contriving how to cut off supplies from them, relieve them, as Elisha did the Syrians that came to apprehend him,” 2 King vi. 22. 2. What encouragement we have to do so. (1.) It will be a likely means to win upon them, and bring them over to be reconciled to us; we shall mollify them as the refiner melts the metal in the crucible, not only by putting it over the fire, but by heaping coals of fire upon it. The way to turn an enemy into a friend is, to act towards him in a friendly manner. If it do not gain him, it will aggravate his sin and punishment, and heap the burning coals of God’s wrath upon his head, as rejoicing in his calamity may be an occasion of God’s turning his wrath from him, ch. xxiv. 17. (2.) However, we shall be no losers by our self-denial: “Whether he relent towards thee or no, the Lord shall reward thee; he shall forgive thee who thus showest thyself to be of a forgiving spirit. He shall provide for thee when thou art in distress (though thou hast been evil and ungrateful), as thou dost for thy enemy; at least it shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, when kindnesses done to our enemies shall be remembered as well as those shown to God’s friends.”
| Miscellaneous Maxims. | |
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Treatment of Enemies
Verses 21-22 restate in principle Divine instruction for the treatment of enemies: If they have need of food, drink, clothing or aid for the feeble, supply their need. If their straying animals are found, return them. Render whatever help can be given and do so without rancor, as Elisha instructed the king of Israel, 2Ki 6:21-23; and as taught in Exo 23:4-5; 2Ch 28:15. Such treatment will likely reconcile the enemy, and in any event will be rewarded by the LORD, Vs 22; Mat 5:44; Rom 12:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 25:21-22
A BLESSED RECOMPENSE
I. A recompense which is difficult. No one can affirm that it is an easy thing to minister help and comfort to one who has done us an injury, but it is more difficult in some cases than in others. Men are not bound to us by equal ties: some are merely related to us because they partake of the same common humanity; others are our kinsmen according to the flesh; while others stand in an even nearer relation, and are brothers in a spiritual sense, being partakers with us of what is called in Scripture language the new birth. According to Christs teaching this is the nearest and closest bond which can unite men, and yet it cannot be denied that we sometimes have to exercise the grace of forgiveness even towards these brethren. But the motive power which prompts us to return good for evil is certainly stronger in this latter case than in the others, or at least it ought to be so. For when we reflect that the brother who has wronged us stands in the same relation to Christ as we do ourselves, it ought not to be at all difficult for us to feed him when hungry, or in any other way in our power to minister to his needs. There will also in most men be found more or less natural promptings to succour an enemy who is related to them by ties of bloodthe nearer the natural relationship the more easy will it be, as a rule, to comply with the command given by the Wise Man. But the greatest difficulty will be found in obeying it when the enemy is one who is altogether unlike us in character, and who is only related to us in the broad and universal sense of being human. To be active and earnest in our endeavours to relieve the necessities of such an one needs often much Divine help, but it is demanded of us by Him who died for a world at enmity with Him.
II. A retaliation which is blessed in its results. We understand with Zckler, the figure here used to describe the deep pangs of repentance which one produces within his enemy by rewarding his hatred with benefits. This is a result most desirable and blessed for him who has been the offender. For it is the only road by which he can regain peace of mind and self-respect, as well as the esteem of all right-minded people. This restoration of an erring brother would in itself be a great reward to a good man, but it is not, according to Solomon, the only one which is accorded to him who thus recompenses good for evil. A special reward for the special act is promised by Jehovah. There is one which is the outcome of the laws by which He governs men. If a traveller in a cold region finds a fellow traveller lying benumbed and forsaken by the roadside, and does what he can to raise and restore him, the effort makes his own blood circulate more quickly, and his own frame glow with warmth. This is the outcome of a natural law of God, and there is a spiritual one akin to it. For whenever an effort is made to raise and restore one who has morally fallen, he who makes the effort feels a reflex glow of moral life and health in his own spirit. This is the certain effect which must follow every act of goodwill towards an enemy, as surely as the shadow follows the substance. But there are probably other rewards of an external naturemany blessings that come to a good mans life may be direct and special gifts from His Father above for deeds which, like the one now under consideration, are especially pleasing to Him.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
We may profess our goodwill towards our enemy, that we forgive and pray for him from our heart. But unless we are ready with the practical exercise of sympathy, we are only the victims of our own moral delusion.Bridges.
It is action, not affection, that is here spoken ofnot the disposition of the heart, but the deeds of the hand; and if it be a more practicable thing that we should compel ourselves to right bodily performances than call up right mental propensities, this may alleviate somewhat our dread of these precepts, as if they were wholly unmanageable or incompetent to humanity. Before, then, taking cognisance of what should be the inward temper of Christians towards those who maltreat or oppress them, we would bid you remark that the outward conduct towards them is that which forms the literal subject-matter of the commandments here given. The disciples are in this place told that hard as it may be under their cruel provocations to keep unruffled minds and to feel peaceably, they, as much as in them lies, are to live peaceably while it may not be the tendency of nature so to desire, our bidden obligation is so to do, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.Chalmers on Rom. 12:20.
Now, we know that if a coal or two of fire be laid on the hearth of the chimney below, he that is cold cannot be wholly warmed, or receive much good thereby; but if one basketful be poured on the fire after another, so that the coals are heaped up to the mantel-tree, or are as high as his head that fain would warm him, then he waxeth thoroughly hot and beginneth even to burn. It seemeth then that by this borrowed speech is meant, that if a man shall be very bountiful even unto his enemy, and heap upon him one good turn after another, this will cause his affection, which before was cold, to burn within him. Thus dealt David with Saul, who spared his life when he might have slain him, and only cut off a piece of his coat when he might have cut off his head.Muffett.
I take for granted, what I believe to be the truth, that the words for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, have reference, not to the fires of Divine vengeance, but to the influence of kindly treatment melting down the enemy to conciliation, as fuel heaped on the ore fuses it from its hardness, and sends it forth in liquid streams, to take the features and impress of the mould.A certain prince, on leading his generals and his army against an advancing host of invaders, declared his resolution not to leave a single enemy alive. He sent an embassy to treat with them. He made proposals such as subdued and attached them, and rendered them valuable allies. On astonishment being expressed that he should have thus failed in his determination and promise, his ready reply wasI have not failed: I have kept my word. I engaged not to leave a living enemy; nor have I. They are enemies no longerthey are friends. He had heaped coals of fire on their head.Wardlaw.
For hunger and thirst are common enemies, both to thee and him. And therefore, as where a common enemy invadeth, particular enmity is laid aside, and all join there to help and withstand him; so here lend a hand to resist these common enemies, which though now have seized on thine enemy may quickly sieze on thee. Besides he is hungry as a man, he thirsteth as a mannot as an enemyand therefore as a man give him bread to eat, give him water to drink. This may also quench the hunger of his enmity, and satisfy also the hunger of his hatred.Jermin.
If anyone desires to try this work, he must bring to it at least these two qualifications, modesty and patience. If he proceed ostentatiously, with an air of superiority and a consciousness of his own virtue, he will never make one step of progress. The subject will day by day grow harder in his hands. But even though the successive acts of kindness should be genuine, the operator must lay his account with a tedious process and many disappointments. The miner does not think that his coals of fire are wasted, although he has been throwing them on for several successive hours, and the stones show no symptoms of dissolving. He knows that each portion of the burning fuel is contributing to the result, and that the flow will be sudden and complete at last. Let him go and do likewise who aspires to win a brother by the subduing power of self-sacrificing love.Arnot.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
21, 22. If thine enemy be hungry thirsty These verses are translated by the Seventy more literally than is their wont, only adding in Pro 25:22, , “in so doing.” In this form they are quoted by the Apostle Paul, Rom 12:20, except the last clause of 22, and the Lord shall reward thee. This is a good endorsement of the translation.
The latter verse is understood in two different senses:
1. Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head That is, on the supposition that he continues his unjust enmity, thou wilt aggravate the punishment which be shall receive from Jehovah. He will punish him the more severely, and reward thee the more richly. This meaning was held by the most of the ancients, and is accepted by some of the moderns as at least the primitive sense of the proverb.
2. Some of the ancient expositors, however, (and most of the moderns,) understood the figure, “coals of fire on his head,” as alluding, not to the painful and destructive effect of burning coals, but to the melting, fusing power of fire as applied to metals. Hence they derive this meaning: Thou wilt melt down his enmity, fill him with burning shame, and soften his hard heart into contrition and kindness.
It is admitted that the idea of pain or punishment enters into the figure, but only that of a mental, spiritual, and salutary kind; which pain, however, as such, is not the object of the treatment, but, rather, the beneficent effect of it is, Whatever may have been the original idea, the latter one is unquestionably the Christian sense, as is evident by what the apostle subjoins: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Nor do we see any sufficient reason to doubt that it was also the primitive sense. Many a bad man has been most effectually punished by kindness; and only this form of punishment does Christianity allow in private individual intercourse. Nor were such noble sentiments wholly foreign to the old dispensation. Comp. Exo 23:4-5; Job 31:29; Pro 24:17. Miller renders the verse thus: “For shovelling live coals thyself upon his head, Jehovah shall punish thee;” that is, if instead of giving him food and drink, thou takest vengeance into thine own hands, God, to whom vengeance belongs, will punish thee. The verb , ( yeshallem,) to requite, rendered “recompense,” admits of this sense.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Wisdom in Dealing with Adversity Pro 25:21-24 focus on how to respond in love to one’s enemy.
Pro 25:21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Pro 25:22 Pro 25:21-22
Mat 5:43-48, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Pro 25:23 The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Pro 25:24 Pro 25:21. If thine enemy be hungry, &c. The plain meaning of this seems to be, “Be kind to your enemy; for that is the surest way to gain his love, and God’s blessing.” It is true, coals of fire are seldom taken in a good sense, when used metaphorically; they commonly signify punishment or vengeance; but then they are always said or supposed to be heaped up by God himself. And surely, God’s heaping up coals may well be allowed to be very different from ours; for to Him vengeance belongs, but to us it belongs not. But why may not coals of fire, so necessary to the use and comfort of life, be used in a good sense too? It is certain, however, that a coal of fire is once so used. 2Sa 14:7. And so they shall quench my coal of fire which is left, i.e. “shall deprive me of my little remaining comfort.” And once, the metaphor, though by a different Hebrew word, is applied to love. Son 8:6. Love is strong as death; the coals thereof are coals of fire; which hath a most vehement flame: and it appears evident enough from the verse following the text, as quoted by St. Paul, Rom 12:20 that the phrase ought to be understood in a good sense; for he subjoins, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. “Overcome evil with good,” evidently explains heaping coals of fire upon an enemy’s head, by acts of goodness: it is to soften his heart, and dispose him to friendship; which is the natural effect of a generous unexpected goodness. Mr. Benson conjectures, that the phrase, heaping coals of fire, &c. is taken from melting metals in a crucible; for when they melt gold or silver in that manner, they do not only put fire under and round all the sides, but also heap coals of fire upon the head of the crucible, and so melt the metal. In allusion to this, Christians are to heap coals of fire, acts of kindness and beneficence, upon the head of an enemy; and so melt down his obstinacy, bring him to temper, and overcome his evil by their good. This is noble, glorious, reasonable, and truly Christian. See Taylor on the Epistle to the Romans, and Schultens’ elaborate note on the place.
DISCOURSE: 809 Pro 25:21-22. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: for thou shall heap coals of fire upon his head; and the Lord shall reward thee.
THE morality both of the Old and New Testament is the same. Some have imagined, that because our blessed Lord said, A new Commandment give I unto you, he has in his Gospel enlarged the duties of his followers beyond what was required by the moral law. But no command of his was new in itself, but only in its circumstances; as being enjoined from new principles, and illustrated by new examples. Morality does not depend on any arbitrary appointment: it arises out of the relation which we bear to God as our common Parent, and to each other as Brethren: and, irrespective of any express revelation of it, To love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves, must of necessity be the duty of every child of man. Had our blessed Lord increased the demands of the moral law, either the Law must have demanded too little of us, or the Gospel must demand too much. But neither of these is the case: the requirements both of the one and of the other are the same, as far as morals are concerned. Love is acknowledged to be the fulfilling of the Law, and the great commandment of the Gospel also. But to love our enemies is the utmost extent to which this duty is carried, either in the Law or Gospel: yet is this enjoined, as we see, under the Mosaic dispensation; which is a clear proof, that it is not, as many erroneously suppose, a requirement peculiar to the Christian code. The very words of our text are cited by the Apostle Paul, as inculcating all that Christianity itself requires on this head [Note: Rom 12:19-20.]: only there is one point in our text which adds greatly to its interest, and which has determined us to select the original words for our consideration, rather than the Apostles citation of them.
From the words before us we shall be led to consider,
I.
The duty inculcated
Certainly the love of enemies was never regarded as a duty by any of the heathen philosophers. Whatever might be occasionally spoken by them in praise of magnanimity, the love of enemies, and the rendering of good for evil under all circumstances, was never admitted by them as a proper principle and rule of conduct. Such a principle is directly contrary to all our natural sentiments and feelings. [There is not a child that does not manifest this disposition, as soon as it begins to act: nor is there any one whose own experience will not furnish him with unnumbered proofs, that this is the natural bent of his own heart. Circumstances may indeed prevent us from retaliating injuries in an open way: the person that has inflicted the injuries may be out of our reach; or be too powerful for us to contend with; or be so low, as to be deemed unworthy of our notice. But in our hearts, we shall find the vindictive principle strongly operative, disposing us to take pleasure in any evil that may have befallen our enemy, and to decline yielding him any service, which, under the influence of a better principle, we might have rendered him. The man under the workings of hatred scarcely thinks of his enemy but with pain, and with a direct reference to the injuries received from him: and though from want of opportunity he may not retaliate, he has in him the spark, which might soon, by a concurrence of circumstances, break forth into a flame. In proof of this we need only see how this spirit has operated in others; sometimes rankling for years, till an opportunity to gratify itself should offer; and sometimes bursting forth at once into furious resentment. The sons of Jacob, Simeon, and Levi, full of indignation against Shechem for defiling their sister Dinah, formed a plan to murder, not Shechem only, but every male of the city in which he dwelt: and, to put them off their guard, and disable them for resistance, they devised a scheme the most hypocritical, and most infernal that could enter into the heart of man; having succeeded in which, they executed their bloody purpose without pity and without remorse [Note: Gen 34:13-15; Gen 34:25.]. In Absaloms bosom the determination to avenge the wrongs which his sister Tamar had sustained, and to expiate them by the blood of Amnon, her offending brother, rankled two full years; till by artifice he was enabled to effect his murderous design [Note: 2Sa 13:15; 2Sa 13:28.]. More rapid, but not less cruel, was the vindictive wrath of David, when Nabal had refused to recompense his services in the way he desired: he instantly hasted with an armed force to cut off Nabal, and every male belonging to his numerous household [Note: 1Sa 25:21-22.]. Alas! alas! what is man, when left to the workings of his own corrupt nature? His every thought accords with that Pharisaic principle, Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine enemy.]
But religion requires us to render good for evil
[Every species of revenge it absolutely forbids, even in thought. Say not, I will do so to him, as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work [Note: Pro 24:29.]. To this effect were those ordinances of Moses: Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people: but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself [Note: Lev 19:18.]. And, If thou meet thine enemys ox or his ass going astray, thou must surely bring it back again to him: and if thou seest his ass lying under his burthen, and wouldst forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help him [Note: Exo 23:4-5.]. Thus by the law of Moses the secret alienation of heart was to be counteracted by the exercise of actual kindness and benevolence. But the words of our text are stronger still, and especially as they are cited by the Apostle Paul. The idea conveyed by him is, that we must not merely give our enemy bread and water when he needs it, but must feed him with the tenderness of a mother towards her little infant [Note: , Rom 12:20.]. O what a victory does this suppose over all the vindictive feelings of our hearts!
We have a beautiful instance of this recorded in the history of Elisha. The prophet was surrounded by an army of Syrians, determined to apprehend and destroy him. By a power communicated to him from above, he smote them all with blindness, and then conducted them into the heart of Samaria. The king of Israel having gained this advantage over them, would have slain them: but the prophet said. Thou shalt not smite them; but shalt set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master [Note: 2Ki 6:21-22.]. Such is the disposition which we also are called to exercise towards our most inveterate enemies. We must bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us [Note: Mat 5:44.]. If they should have offended against us ever so often, even seventy times seven, we are still to retain the same disposition towards them, and to manifest it the very instant they express regret for the unkindness they have shewn us [Note: Mat 18:22.]. Nor are there to be any other bounds to our forgiveness, than those which the Lord Jesus Christ has affixed to his: we are to forgive others even as Christ has forgiven us [Note: Eph 4:32.]: and, if we refuse to do so, our doom is sealed: So also shall the Lord do unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses [Note: Mat 18:35.].]
Such is the duty which we are called to perform: but, that we may not be deterred by the arduousness of it, let us consider,
II.
The encouragement given us to perform it
If we act thus, we have reason to hope,
1.
That we shall overcome the hatred of our enemy
[Certain it is, that no enemy was ever yet won by a vindictive conduct. We may, it is true, silence him by power: but we never can gain his affections by any thing but love. And this will, if not always, yet sometimes, prevail: as St. Paul intimates, when he says, Be not overcome of evils; but overcome evil with good [Note: Rom 12:21.]. Indeed, where there is a spark of ingenuousness left, we cannot but hope that such benevolence as this will at last prevail. We have some remarkable instances of this in the life of David. Saul had persecuted him with most relentless and bitter animosity: yet, when David twice had him in his power, and could easily have destroyed him, he spared his life; and by this generosity constrained his persecutor to confess his own extreme injustice, and to take shame to himself for his own malignant and cruel proceedings [Note: 1Sa 24:4; 1Sa 24:11; 1Sa 24:16-19; 1Sa 26:12; 1Sa 26:21; 1Sa 26:25.] Such effects we also may hope to see produced on our enemies. It is well known that metals are fused, not by putting fire under them, but by heaping also coals of fire upon them: and thus shall the hard hearts of our enemies be melted by accumulated instances of undeserved love. True, we cannot convert their souls by this; for nothing but omnipotence can effect so great a work as the conversion of a soul: but we may reasonably expect to appease their wrath, perhaps also to slay their enmity against us: and one such victory will be a rich recompence for all the forbearance we have ever exercised, and all the love we have ever displayed.]
2.
That we shall be rewarded by our God
[This is plainly asserted in our text; and to all who conform thenuelves to the direction before us shall the promise be assuredly fulfilled. But the promise shall be yet more fully accomplished hereafter. Every act of patient self-denial and of generous love will be noticed by God with special approbation; and, if a cup of cold water given to a disciple for Christs sake shall in no wise lose its reward, much less shall services rendered to an enemy for his sake pass unnoticed. St. Peter tells us, that we are called to such trials, and carried through them in a triumphant manner, on purpose that we may inherit a blessing [Note: 1Pe 3:9.]. But the point is repeatedly asserted by our Lord himself: Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy: Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven [Note: Luk 6:37.]. Let this thought occupy the mind; and the performance of the duty will be a delightful task.]
Address Guard against those reasonings which favour the indulgence of a vindictive spirit
[You will be sometimes inclined to think that the exercise of resentment is necessary; and that if some displeasure be not manifested, your enemies will be emboldened to proceed to still further outrages. But look at the command of God; and, if this be clearly on the side of forbearance and love, say to every contrary suggestion, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me.]
2.
Set the Lord Jesus Christ before you as your example
[There are many passages in the Psalms which seem to breathe a spirit of revenge [Note: Particularly Psalms 109. throughout.]: but these are frequently only prophecies, which might properly have been translated in the future tense: and when they are clearly imprecations, as sometimes they doubtless are, they are spoken in the person of the Messiah, who had a right either to denounce or imprecate judgments on those who obstinately rejected all the offers of his grace. David, when speaking in his own person, manifested the same spirit that becomes us [Note: Psa 35:13-14.]. But David was a fallible man, like unto us: as we have seen in the case of Nabal. Look therefore to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in whom was no sin. When you were enemies, He left the bosom of his Father for you: yea, when you were yet enemies, he died for you I need say no more. Set him before you, and your way will be clear: and, if you look to him for all needful succour, his grace shall be sufficient for you, and you shall be able to do all things through the strength he will impart.]
Pro 25:21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Ver. 21. If thine enemy be hungry. ] Elisha did so: he feasted his persecutors 2Ki 6:22 by a noble revenge, and provided a table for those who had provided a grave for him. Those Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha; he sends them from Samaria full of good cheer and jollity. Thus, thus should a Christian punish his pursuers, no vengeance but this is heroic and fit for imitation. a
a Dr Hall’s Contempt.
If thine enemy be hungry, &c. Quoted in Rom 12:20; compare 1Sa 24:6; 1Sa 26:9. Illustrations: Azariah, Berachiah, &c. (2Ch 28:12-15); Elisha (2Ki 6:19-23). By the Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Species), these examples are put for all similar kinds.
Pro 25:21-22
Pro 25:21-22
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, And Jehovah will reward thee.”
The teaching here is adopted almost word for word in Rom 12:20. “Heaping coals of fire upon the head of an enemy” is a metaphor referring to the pangs of conscience that an enemy will experience upon receiving such undeserved treatment.
Illustration: In our rural community, where this writer grew up, a married couple were experiencing serious problems. A preacher, serving as a counselor, asked the woman, “Have you tried heaping coals of fire upon his head”? She said, “No, but I tried a skillet of hot grease”!
Pro 25:21. Both Old and New Testaments teach that we should treat one who has not been good to us as we would a friend. Old Testament: If thou meet thine enemys ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again (Exo 23:4); New Testament: Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you (Mat 5:44). Our verse and the one following are quoted in Rom 12:20. If you, a godly person, are seeking to win an enemy through kindness, you may get nowhere by socially inviting him over for a meal. The matter may be different if he is hungry (without food) or if he is thirsty (without drink); help offered him in dire circumstances when he might well expect you to disregard his condition or inwardly rejoice over his plight will not be refused (a drowning man will grasp a rope thrown to him regardless of who is on the other end). By such means, Rom 12:21 shows, you may be able to overcome his evil done to you by your good done to him. How worthwhile! How both of you will rejoice!
Pro 25:22. Counseling a woman about her difficult husband, a preacher asked her if she had tried heaping colds of fire upon his head; she said, No, but Ive tried boiling water, and that didnt work. The woman missed the point of this statement. Clarke rightfully observes: Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head-not to consume, but to melt him into kindness, a metaphor taken from smelting metallic ores: So artists melt the sullen ore of lead By heaping coals of fire upon its head. God has promised to reward such actions.
Pro 24:17, Exo 23:4, Exo 23:5, Mat 5:44, Luk 10:33-36, Rom 12:20, Rom 12:21
Reciprocal: 1Sa 24:19 – the Lord 1Sa 30:11 – gave him 2Ki 6:22 – set bread 2Ki 6:23 – he prepared 2Ch 28:15 – gave them Job 24:23 – yet his eyes Pro 19:11 – and Pro 24:29 – Say Isa 21:14 – brought Isa 58:7 – to deal Eze 18:16 – but hath Mat 25:35 – thirsty Luk 6:27 – Love Luk 10:34 – went 1Th 5:15 – none
Pro 25:21-22. If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread, &c. By bread and water he intends all things necessary for his subsistence; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head If he have the least spark of goodness in him, such conduct in thee toward him will work a change in his mind, and make him throw off all his enmities; thou shalt melt him into repentance, and inflame him with love and kindness to thee for so unexpected and undeserved a favour; or, as Dr. Doddridge paraphrases the words, Rom 12:20-21, (where they are quoted by St. Paul verbatim from the translation of the LXX.,) Thou wilt touch him so sensibly, that he will no more be able to stand against such conduct than to bear on his head burning coals; but will rather submit to seek thy friendship, and endeavour, by future kindnesses, to overbalance the injury. Or, if it have not this effect, but he still hardens his heart against thee, he shall have so much the sorer punishment; these coals shall consume him. And the Lord shall reward thee Thy charity to him shall be fully recompensed to thee, if not by him yet, by God, which will be far better. In other words, as is the plain meaning of the passage, Be kind to your enemy, for that is the surest way to gain his love and Gods blessing. That St. Paul understood it in this sense is manifest from the words which he immediately subjoins, after quoting it, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good, in which he evidently explains what is meant by heaping coals of fire on an enemys head, namely, by acts of kindness, to soften his heart and dispose him to friendship; which is the natural effect of a generous unexpected goodness. The phrase seems to be taken from melting metals in a crucible; for when gold or silver is melted in that manner they not only put fire under and round all the sides, but also heap coals of fire upon the head of the crucible, and so melt the metal. In allusion to this, we are to heap acts of kindness and beneficence upon the head of an enemy, and so melt down his obstinacy, bring him to a better temper, and overcome his evil by our good: which is noble, glorious, reasonable, and truly Christian: see Schultens on this place. It is justly observed by Mr. Scott here; that as St. Pauls quoting this passage is a strong testimony to the divine authority of the book from which it is taken, so it clearly evinces that the rule of duty in this case is the same in both testaments, however ancient scribes and Pharisees, and many modern writers, have overlooked it. The law of love, perhaps, is not expounded more spiritually, in any single precept, either of Christ or his apostles, than in this exhortation. Seize the moment of distress to show kindness to him that hates thee.
Clearly the point of this proverb is to return good for evil (cf. Mat 5:40-46; Rom 12:20). Such conduct will bring blessing from God and remorse to the evildoer. Still, what does "heaping burning coals on the head" of the abuser mean? Evidently this clause alludes to an ancient custom. When a person’s fire went out at home, he or she would go to a neighbor and get some live coals to rekindle the fire. Carrying the coals in a pan on the head involved some danger and discomfort for the person carrying them, but they were an evidence of the neighbor’s love. Likewise, the person who receives good in return for evil feels somewhat uncomfortable even though he receives a good gift. His discomfort arises over his guilt for having wronged his neighbor in the first place. So returning good for evil not only secures the blessing of God (Pro 25:22 b), it also convicts the wrongdoer of his ways (Pro 25:22 a) in a gentle way.
CHAPTER 25
FORGIVING
“Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause, and deceive not with thy lips. Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me; I will render to the man according to his work,”- Pro 24:28-29
“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown, lest the Lord see it and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him.”- Pro 24:17-18.
“He that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.”- Pro 17:5
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty give him water to drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.”- Pro 25:21-22
THERE is no subject on which the teaching of the Proverbs more strikingly anticipates the morality of the New Testament than that of forgiveness to our enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ could take some of these sayings and incorporate them unchanged into the law of His kingdom, for indeed it is not possible to surpass the power and beauty and truth of the command to feed those who have injured us if they are hungry, to give them drink when they are thirsty, and in this Divine way to kindle in them repentance for the injury which they have done. This is the high-water mark of moral excellence. No better state can be desired. When a human spirit is habitually in this tender and forgiving mood, it is already united with the Father of spirits, and lives.
It is almost superfluous to point out that even the saints of the Old Testament fall very far short of the lofty standard which is here set before us. The Psalmist, for example, is thinking of coals of a quite different sort when he exclaims: “As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits that they rise not up again.” {Psa 140:9-10} That is the old elemental hate of human nature, the passionate, indignant appeal to a righteous God against those who have been guilty of a wrong or an injury. Even Jeremiah, one of the latest, and certainly not the least holy, of the prophets, could cry out concerning his enemies: “Yet, Lord, Thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from Thy sight; but let them be overthrown before Thee; deal Thou with them in the time of Thine anger.” {Jer 18:23} Words painfully natural, words echoed by many. a persecuted man of God, but yet quite inconsistent with the teaching of the Savior in the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching already foreshadowed in this beautiful proverb.
But it may not be superfluous to notice that the Proverbs themselves, even those which stand at the head of this chapter, do not all touch the high-water mark of Pro 25:21. Thus, for example, the motive which is suggested in Pro 24:18 for not rejoicing in the fall of an enemy is none of the highest. The idea seems to be, if you see your enemy undergoing punishment, if calamity is falling upon him from the Lord, then do not indulge in any insolent exultation, lest the Lord should be offended with you, and, in order to chastise your malignity, should cease to plague and trouble him. In such a view of the question, God is still regarded as a Nemesis that will resent any unseemly rejoicing in the calamity of another; {Pro 17:5 b} in proportion therefore as you wish to see your enemy punished, you must abstain from that joy in his punishment which would lead to its diminution. From a precept of that kind there is a vast moral stride to the simple prohibition of retaliation, announced without any reason given or suggested in Pro 24:29 -“Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me, I will render to the man according to his work.” And from this again there is an incalculable stride to the positive spirit of love, which, not content with simply abstaining from vindictiveness, actually turns the tables, and repays good for evil, looking with quiet assurance to the Lord, and the Lord alone, for recognition and reward. Our wonder is occasioned not because all the Proverbs do not reach the moral altitude of this one, but rather that this one should be so high. When an ideal is set up far in advance of the general practice and even of the general thoughts of the time, we can ascribe it only to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
It needs no proof that forgiveness is better than revenge. We all know that-
“Revenge at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.”
We all know that the immediate effect of forgiving our enemy is a sweet flow of tenderness in the soul, which surpasses in delight all the imagined joys of vindictiveness; and that the next effect is to soften and win the foe himself; the scornful look relents, the tears of passion give place to those of penitence, the moved heart is eager to make amends. We all know that nothing more powerfully affects our fellow-men than the exhibition of this placable temper. We all know that in forgiving we share Gods prerogative, and come into harmony with His Spirit.
Yet here is the melancholy fact that notwithstanding this proverbial truth, taken up into the teaching of our Savior, and echoed in the writings of His Apostles, even in a Christian society, forgiveness is almost as rare as it was in the days of King Solomon. Men are not ashamed-even professing Christians are not ashamed-to say about their enemies, “I will do so to him as he has done to me, I will render to the man according to his work.” We even have a lurking admiration for such retaliatory conduct, calling it spirited, and we still are inclined to contemn one who acts on the Christly principle as weak or visionary. Still the old bad delight in seeing evil fall on the head of our enemies glows in our hearts; still the act of vengeance is performed, the bitter retort is given, the abusive letter is written, with the old sense of unhallowed pride and triumph. How is this? Ah, the simple truth is that it is a small matter to get right principles recognized, the whole difficulty lies in getting them practiced. We need a power which can successfully contend against the storm of passion and self-will in those terrible moments when all the calm lights of reason are quenched by the blinding surf of passion, and all the gentle voices of goodness are drowned by its roaring waves.
Sometimes we hear it said that the moral teaching of Christ is not original, but that all His precepts may be found in the words and writings of ancient sages, just as His teaching about forgiveness is anticipated by the proverb. Yes, but His claim does not rest upon His teaching, but upon the Divine and supernatural power which He has at His command to carry out His doctrines in the conduct of His disciples. This is the point which we must realize if this sweet and beautiful ideal is to be worked out in our lives. We have but touched the fringe of the question when we have conned His words, or shaped conceptions of what a life would be passed in conformity to them. The center of Christian doctrine is power, the power of Christ, the fountain of living waters opened in the heart, the grafting of the withering branches upon a living stock, the indwelling of Christ Himself, as the spring and principle of every holy action, and the effectual restraint on all our ungovernable passions.
But before looking more closely at this, we ought to pay some attention to the constant motive which our Lord, even in His teaching, presents for the practice of a forgiving disposition. He always bases the duty of forgiveness on the need which we have of Gods forgiveness; He teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us”; and in the moving story of the unmerciful servant, who demanded the full payment from his fellow-servant just when his lord had pitifully remitted his own debt, He tells us that forgiveness of our enemies is an indispensable condition of our being forgiven by God. “His lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. So shall also My Heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts.” {Mat 18:35} It is not therefore only, as it is sometimes stated, that we ought to be moved to pity by remembering what God has done for us. No, there is a much sterner thought in our Lords mind; it is that if we do not forgive we shall not and cannot be forgiven. The forgiving spirit manifested to our fellow-men is that without which it is vain for us to come near and to ask God for pardon. If we have come, and are just about to offer our prayer, and if we then remember that we have aught against a brother, we must go first and be reconciled to him, before our prayer can be so much as heard.
Here is certainly a motive of a very powerful kind. Which of us would dare to cherish the bitter thought, or proceed with our plan of vengeance, if we remembered and realized that our vindictiveness would make our own pardon at the hands of God impossible? Which of the countless deeds of retaliation that stain with blood the pages of history would have been perpetrated, and which of the perpetrators would not have tremblingly relinquished all thought of reprisals, if they had seen that in those savage acts of vengeance they were not, as they supposed, executing lawful justice, but actually cutting off their own hope of pardon before the throne of God?
If we avenge ourselves, if society is constantly torn by the quarrels and the mutual recriminations of hostile men whose one thought is to give as good as they have got, it can only be because we do not believe, or do not realize, this solemn teaching of the Lord. He seems a faint and doubtful voice compared with the loud tumult of passion within; His authority seems weak and ineffectual compared with the mighty domination of the evil disposition. Powerful, therefore, as the motive is to which He constantly appeals, if He had left us nothing but His teaching on the subject we should not be materially better off than they who listened with attention to the teaching of the wise authors of these ancient Proverbs. What more has He left us?
It is His prerogative to give to those who believe in Him a changed heart. How much is meant by that, which only the changed heart can know! Outwardly we seem much alike; outwardly, there is little sign of an inward transformation; but far as the east is from the west is the unregenerate heart from the regenerate, the Christless heart from one which He has taken in His hands, and by His great redemption created anew. Now without stopping to follow the processes of faith by which this mighty change is effected, let us simply mark the characteristics of the change so far as it affects the matter in hand.
The first and most radical result of the New Birth is that God takes the place which self has occupied. All the thoughts which have clustered about your own being now turn to His Being, as stray fragments of iron turn to the magnet. Consequently, all the emotions and passions which are stimulated by self-love give place to those which are stimulated by the love of God. It is as if the pipes of your aqueduct had been changed at the fountain head, disconnected from the malarious waters of the marsh, and connected with the pure and sparkling water of the hills. Gods ways of regarding men, Gods feelings towards men, His yearning over them, His pity for them, flow into the changed heart, and so preoccupy it that resentment, hatred, and malice are washed out like the sour dregs in a cup which is rinsed in a running stream.
There is the man who did you the wrong-very cruel and unpardonable it was!-but, as all personal elements are quite out of the question, you regard him just as if you were not the injured being. You see him only as God sees him; you trace all the malignant workings of his mind; you know how the fire of his hate is a fire which burns the heart that entertains it. You see clearly how tormenting those revengeful passions are, how the poor soul mastered by them is diseased, how the very action in which it is triumphing now must become one day a source of bitter regret and implacable self-reproach; you soon begin to regard the ill deed as a shocking wound inflicted on the doer of it, and the wells of pity are opened. As if this enemy of yours had been quite innocent of all ill-will, and had been overtaken by some terrible calamity, your one instinctive thought is to help him and relieve him. Out of the fullness of your heart, without any sense of being magnanimous, or any thought of a further end, -simply for the pity of it, -you come to proffer him bread in his hunger and water in his thirst.
Yes, it is in the atmosphere of pity that personal resentment dies away, and it is only by the power of the Son of Man that the heart can be filled with a pity large enough to pardon all the sins of our kind.
It is this thought-though without any definite statement of the means by which it is produced-that finds expression in Whittiers touching lines:-
“My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burying-place;
Where pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face!
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of a common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and, trembling, I forgave.”
Yes, one who is touched by the spirit of the Son of Man finds too much to pity in the great sorrowing world, and in its fleeting and uncertain life, to cherish vengeful feelings. Himself redeemed by the untold love of His Father, by the undeserved and freely offered pardon in Christ Jesus his Lord, he can feel for his enemies nothing but forbearance and love; if they too are Christians, he longs to win them back to the peace and joy from which their evil passion must have driven them; and if they are not, his eyes must fill with tears as he remembers how brief is their apparent triumph, how unsubstantial their gleam of joy. The desire to save them immediately masters the transitory wish to punish them. The pity of men, for the sake of the Son of Man, wins the day.
And now we may just glance at the effect which the Christly conduct has upon the offender, and the reward which God has attached to its exercise.
It is one of the most beautiful traces of Gods likeness, in even bad men, a characteristic to which there is no parallel in the animal creation, that though passion awakes passion, wrath, and vengeance revenge-so that savages pass their whole time in an unbroken series of blood feuds, the hideous retaliation bandied from tribe to tribe and from man to man, generation after generation-the spirit of meekness, proceeding not from cowardice, but from love, disarms passion, soothes wrath, and changes vengeance into reconciliation. The gleam of forgiveness in the eye of the injured is so obviously the light of God that the wrongdoer is cowed and softened before it. It kindles a fire in his spirit, his heart melts, his uplifted hand falls, his angry voice grows tender. When men are so dehumanized as to be insensible to this softening effect, when they interpret the gentleness as weakness, and are moved by the forgiving spirit simply to further injury and more shameless wrong, then we may know that they are possessed, -they are no longer men, -they are passing into the category of the lost spirits, whom the forbearance of God Himself leads not to repentance but only to added sin.
But if you have ever by the sweet spirit of Christ so mastered your natural impulse as to return good for evil lovingly and whole-heartedly, and if you have seen the regenerating effect in the beautiful subjugation of your foe and his transformation into a friend, it is not necessary to say much of the reward which God has in store for you. Do you not already possess it?
Yet the reward is certainly greater than you are able at once to apprehend. For what a secret is this which you possess, the secret of turning even the malignity of foes into the sweetest affection, the secret which lay in the heart of God as the spring and the means of mans redemption. The highest reward that God can give to His creatures is to make them partakers of His nature as He has made them in His own image. When we share in a Divine attribute we enter so far into the Divine bliss; and in proportion as this attribute seems removed from our common human nature, our spirit must exult to find that it has been really appropriated. What further reward, then, can he who avenges not himself desire? The pulse of the Divine heart beats in him; the tides of the Divine life flow through him. He is like God-God who opposes to mans ingratitude the ocean of His pardoning love; he is conscious of that which is the fountain of joy in the Divine Being; surely a man must be satisfied when he awakes in Gods likeness! And that satisfaction comes to everyone who has heaped coals of fire on his enemys head by feeding him in his hunger, and giving him water when athirst. Say not, “I will do so to him as he has done to me, I will render to the man according to his work.” Love your enemies; pray for them which despitefully use you.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL
By nature we all are inclined to render evil for evil
It shall be fulfilled here: for such conduct will bring unspeakable peace into the soul. It is said, that revenge is sweet: but with infinitely greater propriety may it be said, that the returning of good for evil is sweet. The one is a malignant pleasure, such as we may suppose Satan himself felt, when he had prevailed, as he thought, against the Lord of life and glory: but the other is such a sacred pleasure as Christ himself felt, when he prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. What satisfaction did David experience, when, in consequence of Abigails interposition, he had changed his mind in relation to Nabal, and sacrificed his resentment to a sense of duty! Again and again did he bless her for diverting him from his purpose [Note: 1Sa 25:32-33.]. And we also, whenever love rises superior to resentment, and enables us to render good for evil, shall find unspeakable comfort springing up in our souls.
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary