Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 22:8
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
8. vanity ] Better, with R.V. text, calamity; , LXX.; mala, Vulg.
the rod of his anger ] i.e. his power to vent his wrath upon others. Comp. Isa 14:6.
The LXX. add to this verse , which is quoted by St Paul, 2Co 9:7.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The rod of his anger – That with which he smites others (compare Isa 14:6). The King James Version describes the final impotence of the wrath of the wicked.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 22:8
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity.
The husbandry and harvestof the wicked
I. What is it to sow iniquity? or, to sow to the flesh? To follow only such a kind of life as a mans own carnal and corrupt humour leads unto. It is called sowing because–
1. Before sowing goes the dressing and manuring of the ground; and men make themselves ready beforehand to do evil.
2. Ploughing and sowing are accompanied with much industry. And great is the diligence of the ungodly in the furtherance of iniquity.
3. Sowing, though laborious, is full of contentment. And the ungodly find joy in doing naughtily.
4. In sowing there go many seeds together, one handful after another. In the lives of the wicked there are plenty of evils; they never go alone–one maketh way for another.
5. After sowing the ground is harrowed, and the seed covered. So when evil is entertained in the heart, what policy there is to secrete it.
Sowing iniquity is discerned by these signs:
1. A cherishing and encouraging the heart to evil.
2. A taking pains to do naughtily.
3. A delighting in wickedness.
4. A heaping of one sin on the neck of another.
5. A plotting for the bringing of evil to perfection.
6. A withstanding of all means tending to recovery.
II. What are the troubles which follow on this sowing of iniquity? The affliction here meant is either in this life or hereafter. That which is in this life is either outward or inward. Diseases, discredit, etc. A conscience full of inward vexation; and sometimes a reprobate mind. The term reap indicates the fulness and certainty of the affliction. Two points of doctrine taught–
1. The greatness of Gods patience.
2. The certainty of His justice. (S. Hieron.)
Wild oats
He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity (R.V.). The fashion of never calling a spade a spade is known as euphemism. According to it death is paying the debt of nature, stealing is misappropriation, lying is prevarication. A trace of it is found in the expression, sowing ones wild oats. The phrase is intended to comprehend pretty much all the vices of young manhood. We are all sowing something or other. Some sow the fine wheat of kindly lives and generous deeds. Others go heedlessly sowing the wind. It would be well, all around, if there were less of sentimentalism and more of sound common sense with respect to the follies of our fast young men. Never were two greater mistakes made than are embodied in these two excuses, Boys will be boys, and Hell live it down; Im sure hell live it down. Paul directs our attention to the two levels of life–the low level of the flesh; the higher level of the spirit, where are men who live not for themselves only, but for the good of others and the glory of God. For all who are building character and making their lives tell for truth and righteousness, there are three safeguards–conscience, the sense of honour, and faith. There is no hope that the vicious young man will live his evil down. Sin works a terrible damage. It rots ones self-respect; it pollutes the memory. It indisposes the soul for better things. It enslaves in the fetters of habit. It ruins the body. It destroys the soul. But no matter what the mistakes of our past lives have been, if we repent the Lord is ready to forgive. (D. J. Burrell, D.D.)
Human life
I. The inevitable work of human life. What is the work? It is that of moral agriculture-sowing and reaping. Every man in every act of life is doing this. Every volition, whether it takes the form of a thought, a word, or a muscular act, is a seed. There is a germ of imperishable life in it. What seeds men sow every day. What bushels they deposit in the moral soil of their being. But they reap as well as sow every day. What was sown yesterday they reap to-day. Men are living in the fruits of their doings. The law of causation is inviolate and ever operative within them.
II. The retributive law of human life. What you sow youll reap.
1. What you sow in kind you reap. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity. Job says, They that plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same (Job 4:8). Paul (Gal 6:7-8). God will not reverse the law.
2. What you sow in measure you shall reap. Not a grain will be lost. Sometimes the seed which the husbandman commits to the soil rots. But not a grain in the harvest of life is lost. He will reap the richest harvest of blessedness who is most active in deeds of love and godliness. The words present–
III. The terrible mistake of human life. What is the mistake? Sowing iniquity.
1. This is a general mistake.
2. This is a mistake which men are slow to learn.
3. This is a mistake whose ultimate consequences will be terrific.
And the rod of his anger shall fail; or, as in the margin, With the rod of his anger shall he be consumed. Perhaps this expression refers to the tyrannic power exercised by wealthy men, as referred to in the preceding verse. Death shall wrest the rod from his hands. God shall break it to pieces; and his tyranny and iniquity shall leave him nothing but shame, remorse, and the fruits of Divine vengeance. (Homilist.)
Sowing wild oats
In all the wide range of accepted British maxims there is none, take it for all in all, more thoroughly abominable than that a young man must sow his wild oats. Look at it on what side you will, and you can make nothing but a devils maxim of it. What a man–be he young, old, or middle-aged–sows, that, and nothing else, shall he reap. The one only thing to do with wild oats is to put them carefully into the hottest part of the fire, and get them burnt to dust, every seed of them. If you sow them, no matter in what ground, up they will come, with long, tough roots like couch-grass, and luxuriant stalks and leaves, assure as there is a sun in heaven–a crop which it turns ones heart cold to think of. The devil, too, whose special crop they are, will see that they thrive; and you, and nobody else, will have to reap them; and no common reaping will get them out of the soil, which must be dug down deep again and again. Well for you if, with all your care, you can make the ground sweet again by your dying day. Boys will be boys is not much better, but that has a true side to it; but this encouragement to the sowing of wild oats is simply devilish, for it means that a young man is to give way to the temptations and follow the lusts of his age. What are we to do with the wild oats of manhood and old age–with ambition, overreaching, the false weights, hardness, suspicion, avarice–if the wild oats of youth are to be sown, and not burnt? What possible difference can we draw between them? If we may sow the one, why not the other? (Tom Hughes.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. He that soweth iniquity] The crop must be according to the seed. If a man sow thistle seed, is it likely he shall reap wheat? If he sow to the flesh, shall he not of the flesh reap destruction?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He that soweth iniquity, or unrighteousness, whose common practice it is to wrong or oppress others,
shall reap vanity; or, trouble or misery, as this word is commonly used, and as divers here render it. The mischief which he hath done to others shall be returned to him by Gods righteous sentence.
The rod of his anger shall fail; that power which he used with fury and cruelty shall be taken away from him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. (Compare Pro 11:18;Psa 109:16-20; Gal 6:7;Gal 6:8).
the rod . . . failHispower to do evil will be destroyed.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He that soweth iniquity u shall reap vanity,…. He that practises sin, and is frequent in the commission of it; indulges to it in a profuse way, as the sower plentifully scatters his seed; such shall reaper possess nothing but sin and wickedness; for, what a man sows, that shall he reap; he shall eat the fruit of his doings, and have the reward of his works; see Job 4:8; or “nothing” w, mere emptiness; it shall not answer; he shall have in the end neither pleasure nor profit, but the contrary; “shall reap evil things”, as the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate Latin versions render it;
and the rod of his anger shall fail; with which he has ruled and smitten others in an angry and cruel manner; this shall be taken from him; his authority shall fail, and he shall become subject to others, and be used in like manner; see Isa 14:4. R. Joseph Kimchi interprets it of “the rod of the increase” of the earth, or the rod or flail with which the fruits of the earth are threshed or beaten out, which should fail before they were reaped; and Schultens x has reference to the same, and gives the sense, that a wicked man that sows iniquity, when he thinks his harvest is ripe, shall be beaten with the flail, by which he shall be consumed; and he that threshed others shall be threshed himself.
u So, “serere fallaciam”, in Plauti Poenulo, l. 1. v. 67. w “inanitatem ac nihilum”, Michaelis. x “Et virga in eum desaevitura, erit decretoria”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The group now following extends to the end of this first collection of Solomon’s proverbs; it closes also with a proverb of the poor and the rich.
8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity;
And the rod of his fury shall vanish away.
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7); he that soweth good reapeth good, Pro 11:18; he that soweth evil reapeth evil, Job 4:8; cf. Hos 10:12. is the direct contrast of or ( e.g., Psa 125:3; Psa 107:42), proceeding from the idea that the good is right, i.e., straight, rectum ; the evil, that which departs from the straight line, and is crooked. Regarding , which means both perversity of mind and conduct, as well as destiny, calamity, vid., Pro 12:21. That which the poet particularly means by is shown in 8b, viz., unsympathizing tyranny, cruel misconduct toward a neighbour. is the rod which he who soweth iniquity makes another to feel in his anger. The saying, that an end will be to this rod of his fury, agrees with that which is said of the despot’s sceptre, Isa 14:5.; Psa 125:3. Rightly Fleischer: baculus insolentiae ejus consumetur h. e. facultas qua pollet alios insolenter tractandi evanescet . Hitzig’s objection, that a rod does not vanish away, but is broken, is answered by this, that the rod is thought of as brandished; besides, one uses of anything which has an end, e.g., Isa 16:4. Other interpreters understand “the rod of his fury” of the rod of God’s anger, which will strike the and , as at Eze 5:13; Dan 12:7: “and the rod of His punishment will surely come” (Ewald, and similarly Schultens, Euchel, Umbreit). This though also hovers before the lxx: ( ) ( ). But if the rod of punishment which is appointed for the unrighteous be meant, then we would have expected . Taken in the future, the of the is not its confectio in the sense of completion, but its termination or annihilation; and besides, it lies nearer after 8a to take the suffix of subjectively (Isa 14:6; Isa 16:6) than objectively. The lxx has, after Pro 22:8, a distich: –
.
The first line (2Co 9:7) is a variant translation of 9a (cf. Pro 21:17), the second ( ) is a similar rendering of 8b.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
Note, 1. Ill-gotten gains will not prosper: He that sows iniquity, that does an unjust thing in hopes to get by it, shall reap vanity; what he gets will never do him any good nor give him any satisfaction. He will meet nothing but disappointment. Those that create trouble to others do but prepare trouble for themselves. Men shall reap as they sow. 2. Abused power will not last. If the rod of authority turn into a rod of anger, if men rule by passion instead of prudence, and, instead of the public welfare, aim at nothing so much as the gratifying of their own resentments, it shall fail and be broken, and their power shall not bear them out in their exorbitances, Isa 10:24; Isa 10:25.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Harvest of Wickedness
Verse 8 declares that he who wickedly mistreats or oppresses others will eventually reap trouble as the effort of his anger fails and he reaps as he has sown, Job 4:8; Psa 125:3; Isa 14:6; Hos 8:7; Hos 10:13; Gal 6:7-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 22:8. The rod of his anger, or, as Zckler, the staff of his haughtiness.
Pro. 22:16. Zckler reads this verse One oppresseth the poor only to make him rich, i.e., the oppression which one practises on a poor man rouses his moral energy, and thus, by means of his tireless industry and his productive labour in his vocation, he works himself out of needy circumstances into actual prosperity.
Here begins the third main division of the book of Proverbs. (See Introduction.) Its contents are styled in Pro. 22:17 The words of wise men, and they differ from the second division in consisting for the most part of much longer sentences, comprising, as a general rule, two verses, but sometimes many more. Zckler remarks that there is prevalent everywhere the minutely hortatory, or, in turn, admonitory style, rather than that which is descriptive and announces facts. Delitzsch and other modern Bible students infer from Pro. 22:17 that this portion of the book contains no inconsiderable number of utterances of wise men of Solomons time. (See Introduction to the Book of Proverbs, Langes Commentary.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 22:8
A WORTHLESS SEED AND A ROTTEN STAFF
I. The seed sown. It is iniquity. All kinds of deeds and every manner of dealing that are out of harmony with the principles of justice are acts of iniquity. The least deviation from the path of moral right is in its measure an iniquitous step. Sowing iniquity is an expression that covers very much ground, and includes many degrees of moral wrong, from the withholding of the smallest act of justice to the inflicting of the greatest act of injustice. Now, whenever a man deliberately and knowingly does either the one or the other he does it with a purpose. He has an end in view as much as the farmer has when he sows seed in the field. Men do not generally act unjustly and commit crime out of mere love of sinthey generally expect and desire to gain something by it that they think worth having. Solomon here declares that they will be disappointed. He has before dwelt upon the retribution that will follow sin, he is here speaking of its deceptive character. Men do not get from it what they expectthey are disappointed either of the harvest or in it. This has been the experience of all sowers of iniquity in the world since Eve cast in the first seed. In a certain sense she got what she was promised, but how different the crop from what she hoped for. She reaped vanity.
II. The staff depended upon. Haughtiness or pride. (See Critical Notes.) This pride of heart and haughtiness of demeanour is born of a mans imagining that he has gained for himself a position and a name that will defy the changes and vicissitudes of life. This idea bears him up; he leans upon it, as men lean upon a rod or staff. The rich man often makes a staff of his riches, and uses it to rule over the poor, as in Pro. 22:7. The man of talent sometimes makes his talent a staff, and walks among his intellectual inferiors with a proud and haughty step. The great conqueror says in his heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:13), and with the rod of his power he smites the nations and tramples upon the rights of his fellow-creatures. But all these rods of haughtiness shall be broken, and those who lean upon them shall find they have been trusting to a broken reed, and the objects of their oppression shall say unto them, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The proverb takes two terms for iniquity, one meaning crookedness, the other meaning nothingness. It paints one as only breeding the other. It intends a positive law. Wheat breeds wheat. So iniquity breeds only worthlessness. A man may live a thousand years and yet the harvest will be unvarying. And then to meet the fact that the dominion that his ambition gives does make him ruler over the saints themselves, he employs a verb which expresses high action, but action that exhausts itself. Its literal sense is to consume. The idea is as of a fever which wears down the patient and itself together. The impenitent seem to have the whole rod or sceptre, of our planet, the true solution is this, that the rod is just budding out its strength.Miller.
Often may oppressors prosper for a time. God may use them as his chastening rod. But the seed-time of iniquity will end in the harvest of vanity; and when they have done their work, the rod of their anger shall fail. Such was Sennacherib in olden time, such was Napoleon in our own day. Never has the world seen so extensive a sower of iniquity, never a more abundant harvest of vanity. The rod of anger was he to the nations of the earth. But how utterly was the rod suffered to fail, when the purpose was accomplished! despoiled of empire, shorn of greatnessan exiled captive.Bridges.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(8) Vanityi.e., calamity, trouble.
The rod of his anger shall fail.When his time comes, and his iniquity is full, he shall himself suffer the punishment he brought on others, as Babylon did (Isa. 14:6), Assyria (Isa. 30:31).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Shall reap vanity Evil, trouble, calamity. “As a man soweth, so shall he also reap.” Gal 6:7. And the rod of his anger Haughtiness, insolence, shall fail or be ended. Conant reads: “Shall be ready,” finished and ready for use upon him understanding it of the rod prepared for him Comp. 2Pe 2:3.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 8. He that soweth iniquity,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 22:8. He that soweth iniquity, &c. Houbigant renders this, He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: the rod shall disperse and dissipate his labour: and he supposes the idea to be taken from sowing and harvest. See Isa 28:27-28. Schultens says the meaning is, that, “He who soweth iniquity, when he thinks his harvest to be come, shall himself undergo the flail or rod; by which he shall be consumed, being bruised himself who used to bruise others, and his punishment shall be complete.” The LXX add to the proverb, The Lord blesseth or loveth a cheerful giver; but will complete the vanity of his works. See 2Co 9:7.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 22:8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
Ver. 8. He that soweth iniquity, shall reap vanity. ] The usurer and cruel creditor soweth his money, his mammon of iniquity (that ungain grain), upon his poor debtors; and whether it be a barren year or a fruitful, a good soil or a bad, luna affert menstruos sensus, he hath his constant pay, yea, his use upon use, according to that Greek verse,
‘ E , .’
Now, can such increase be blest? Shall not those that thus sow the wind be sure to reap the whirlwind?
And the rod of his anger shall fail.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
iniquity = trickery. Hebrew. ‘aval. App-44. Illustration: Rebekah (Gen 27:6-17, Gen 27:41-46).
shall fail. Illustrations: Balak (Num 24:10); Solomon (1Ki 11:14, 1Ki 11:23, and 1Ki 11:31, 1Ki 11:40); Ahaziah (2Ki 1:9-17); Sennacherib (2Ch 32:21. Isa 30:31); Haman (Est 5:11-13; Est 7:10).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 22:8
Pro 22:8
“He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity; And the rod of his wrath shall fail.”
“If you plant the seeds of injustice, disaster will spring up, and your oppression of others will end. “A man who sows evil has a harvest of trouble; his labor goes for nothing. Any person who is sinning is “sowing iniquity.” The Septuagint (LXX) has a variant reading for the second line, “God loves a cheerful and liberal man, and Scott called this the source of Paul’s words in 2Co 9:7.
Pro 22:8. It is a divine principle (law) that whatever a person sows in life, that he will reap in consequences (Gal 6:7). If one sows good seeds, he will reap good (Gal 6:8; Pro 11:18); if he sows bad seeds, he will reap trouble (Gal 6:8; Job 4:8; Hos 10:13). The acts of sin may be pleasurable (Heb 11:25), but the consequences are not (Pro 5:8-13). Oftentimes one finds that the rod of wrath he planned for another falls upon himself instead.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
that: Job 4:8, Hos 8:7, Hos 10:13, Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8
the rod of his anger shall fail: or, with the rod of his anger he shall be consumed, Pro 14:3, Psa 125:3, Isa 9:4, Isa 10:5, Isa 14:29, Isa 30:31
Reciprocal: Jdg 15:6 – and burnt Job 15:31 – for vanity Psa 9:15 – General Pro 1:31 – General Pro 6:14 – soweth Pro 11:18 – but Pro 21:6 – getting Pro 30:8 – Remove 1Co 6:9 – unrighteous
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 22:8. He that soweth iniquity Or, unrighteousness; he, whose common practice it is to wrong or oppress others; shall reap vanity Or trouble, or misery, as the word commonly signifies, and as many here render it. The mischief which he hath done to others shall be returned to himself by Gods righteous sentence; and the rod of his anger shall fail That power which he used with fury and cruelty shall be taken from him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:8 He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the {e} rod of his anger shall fail.
(e) His authority by which he oppressed others, will be taken from him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This verse provides encouragement for the oppressed. The last line assures the sufferer that God will eventually break the oppressing rod of the person who sows iniquity.