According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
Parallel Translations
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According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
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Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
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According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow mischief, reap the same.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Job 4:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Galatians 6:7-8 Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
- Proverbs 22:8 He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
- Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
- Jeremiah 4:18 “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”
- Hosea 10:12-13 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.
- 2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
- Psalms 7:14-16 Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They that do evil, cannot but receive evil.
They that do evil, cannot but receive evil.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that…
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
Ver. 8. Even as I have seen] And therefore can boldly say: for what so sure as sight? See Num 11:23 Gen 34:1-2. Diligent inspection of a thing, and deep consideration upon it, makes confidence, which is the fruit of experience.
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That they plow iniquity, and sow wickedness] Here is ploughing and sowing, a mystical husbandry. Sinners are sore labourers, great painstakers: they plot and plough, they sow and reap, they dig and delve, Pro 16:27, they weave and spin, Isa 59:5, they busy their heads, and beat their brains, as hard students in their black art; they labour even unto lassitude, Jer 9:5. Hence they are called workers of iniquity (the Vulgate rendereth this text Qui operantur iniquitatem), and sin is called a work of the flesh. How can those but work hard in digging descents to hell, who have the devil for their task master, who continually spurs them on to a quick despatch of the deeds of darkness? Arant, serunt, occant scelera, as the devil’s hinds and horses, they drudge night and day, turning up all the corruption in their hearts and conveniences in the world, for the effecting of their wicked devices.
And sow wickedness] Nemo repente fit turpissimus. No one suddenly becomes wicked. Sin goeth on gradually (here is first ploughing, then sowing), wicked men and seducers grow worse and worse, till at length they are even Satanized, 2Ti 3:13; being transformed into sin’s image, and bereft of all passive power of awaking out of the snare of the devil, being taken alive by him at his pleasure, 2Ti 2:26.
Reap the same] Not the same day it may be, but too soon, to their sorrow, they receive the guerdon of their sin. Sooner or later, it is sure, he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, Pro 22:8 Jer 4:18. As everybody hath its shadow, so hath every sin its punishment; and many times the one is so like the other, that a man may safely say, Such a punishment is the product of such a sin, Gal 6:7. Men shall reap the same they sow, and good reason. Give them blood to drink, for they are worthy, Rev 16:6. God loves to make him a name among men by his art of justicing (as one calleth it) in that most exact way of counterpassion, or retaliation; and Adonibezek hath got him a fame of ingenuity, by acknowledging as much, Jdg 1:7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain As thou hast never seen any example of a…
As thou hast never seen any example of a righteous man cut off, so on the contrary I have seen many examples of wicked men cut off for their wickedness. Or, As far as I have observed; or, But as I have seen or experienced.
They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness; they that designedly and industriously work wickedness, first plotting and preparing themselves for it, and then continuing to pursue and execute it, as husbandmen first plough up and prepare the ground, and then cast in the seed. Compare Pro 22:8; Hos 10:13.
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Reap the same, i.e. iniquity, or such trouble or injury (for so also the Hebrew word avert signifies) as they cause to others. Or, the fruit of their iniquity, the just recompence and punishment of it, which is oft called sin or iniquity, as Gen 4:7; Num 12:2; 16:26; 32:23. Compare Gal 6:7,8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain By the blast of God they perish,.... They and…
By the blast of God they perish,.... They and their works, the ploughers, sowers, and reapers of iniquity; the allusion is to the blasting of corn by the east wind, or by mildew, &c. having used the figures of ploughing and sowing before; and which is as soon and as easily done as corn, or anything else, is blasted in the above manner; and denotes the sudden and easy destruction of wicked men by the power of God, stirred up by his wrath and indignation, because of their sins; who when he blows a blast on their persons, substance, and families, they perish at once:
and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed; meaning his wrath and anger, which is like a stream of brimstone, and kindles a fire on the wicked, which are as fuel to it, and are soon consumed by it; the allusion is to breath in a man's nostrils, and the heat of his wrath and fury discovered thereby: some think this refers to Job's children being destroyed by the wind, see Isa 11:4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Even - As thou hast never seen any example…
Even - As thou hast never seen any example of a righteous man cut off, so I have seen many of wicked men cut off for their wickedness. They - They that designedly work wickedness, first preparing themselves for it, and then continuing to execute it, as husbandmen first plow the ground, and then cast in the feed. Reap - The fruit of their iniquity, the just punishment of it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. They that plough iniquity] A proverbial form…
Verse 8. They that plough iniquity] A proverbial form of speech drawn from nature. Whatever seed a man sows in the ground, he reaps the same kind; for every seed produces its like. Thus Solomon, Pr 22:8: "He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity." And St. Paul, Ga 6:7-8: "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he who soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." And of the same nature is that other saying of the apostle, He that soweth sparingly, shall reap sparingly, 2Co 9:6.
The same figure is employed by the Prophet Hosea Ho 8:7: They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; and Ho 10:12-13: Sow to yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy. Ye have ploughed wickedness; ye have reaped iniquity. The last sentence contains, not only the same image, but almost the same words as those used by Eliphaz.
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Our Lord expresses the same thing, in the following words: Mt 7:16-18: Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. So the Greeks: -
Ατης αρουρα θανατον εκκαρπιζεται.
Aesch. Ἑπτα επι Θηβαις, ver. 607.
"The field of iniquity produces the fruit of death."
Ὑβρις γαρ εξανθους εκαρπωσε σταχυν
Ατης, ὁθεν παγκλαυτον εξαμᾳ θερος.
IB. Περσαι, ver. 823.
"For oppression, when it springs,
Puts forth the blade of vengeance; and its fruit
Yields a ripe harvest of repentant wo." - POTTER.
The image is common every where because it is a universal law of nature.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 4:8. Even as I have seen, &c. —…
Job 4:8. Even as I have seen, &c. — As thou hast never seen any example of a righteous man cut off, so I have seen many of wicked men cut off for their wickedness. They that plough, &c. — They that designedly work wickedness, first preparing themselves for it, and then continuing to execute it, as husbandmen first plough the ground, and then cast in the seed. See the margin. In other words, the observation I have made of such persons is, they are so far from reaping any advantage from their iniquitous practices, that those practices return on their own heads, and their sinful schemes and contrivances recoil wholly on themselves.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Even as I have seen - Eliphaz appeals to…
Even as I have seen - Eliphaz appeals to his own observation, that people who had led wicked lives were suddenly cut off. Instances of this kind he might doubtless have observed - as all may have done. But his inference was too broad when he concluded that all the wicked are punished in this manner. It is true that wicked people are thus cut off and perish; but it is not true that all the wicked are thus punished in this life, nor that any of the righteous are not visited with similar calamities. His reasoning was of a kind that is common in the world - that of drawing universal conclusions from premises that are too narrow to sustain them, or from too few carefully observed facts.
They that plow iniquity - This is evidently a proverbial expression; and the sense is, that as people sow they reap. If they sow wheat, they reap wheat; if barley, they reap barley; if tares, they reap tares. Thus, in Pro 22:8 :
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“He that soweth iniquity shall reap also vanity.”
So in Hos 8:7 :
“For they have sown the wind,
And they shall reap the whirlwind:
It hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal
If so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up”
Thus, in the Persian adage:
“He that planteth thorns shall not gather roses.”
Dr. Good.
So Aeschylus:
Ἄτης ἄρουρα Θάνατον ἐκκαρπίζεται.
Atēs aroura thanaton ekkarpizetai.
The field of wrong brings forth death as its fruit.
The meaning of Eliphaz is, that people who form plans of wickedness must reap appropriate fruits. They cannot expect that an evil life will produce ultimate happiness.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Reap them. He insinuates that Job now reaps what…
Reap them. He insinuates that Job now reaps what he had sown, Galatians vi. 8.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain they that plough iniquity . . . reap the…
they that plough iniquity . . . reap the same-- (Pro 22:8; Hos 8:7; Hos 10:13; Gal 6:7-8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Even as (so far as)… they that plough…
8. Even as (so far as)… they that plough iniquity — A principle profoundly true, everywhere a matter of observation, and often expressed in a like figure. The error of Eliphaz is, that he perverts it. He makes great suffering an evidence and a measure of personal sin. He intimates that all suffering is the harvest of wrong doing, which was not true, for instance, in the case of Job. He is right when he says that all sin will sooner or later be punished; he is wrong when he reasons that the individual can have no suffering that does not spring from his own sins. Illustrations abound. Thus AEschylus:
Nothing worse,
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In whatever cause, than impious fellowship;
Nothing of good is reaped: for when the field
Is sown with wrong, the ripen’d fruit is death. — Septem, 602.
Cicero cites a Latin proverb, “As you sow you will reap.” — De Orat., 2:94. The Institutes of Manu teach the Hindu that all diseases are the punishment of past offences, and they assign a particular disease to each particular crime. Chap. 11. The teaching of the sacred books of the Chinese would, perhaps, be more readily accepted by Eliphaz: “The good or evil which Heaven sends to men depends upon their virtue.” — Shoo-King, IV, ch. 4. Striking instances might be adduced in illustration of the thought that to the very field where iniquity was perpetrated retribution often comes. The grandson of Ahab is himself slain by treachery in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. 2Ki_9:25-26. Hoffman was the first to remark, that, according to Act_1:18, Judas must have met his end in the very field he bought with the price of a Saviour’s blood. All sin is seminal. Seed of every kind carries within itself the germ, and as some say the form, of the future growth. Sin is essentially retributive. It embodies the elements of retribution. Change of place and lapse of time do not affect their vitality. “Sin (peccasse) is the first and greatest punishment of those that sin. Nor is any wickedness unpunished: since in wickedness is the punishment of wickedness.” — SENECA, Epist, 97.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. even as I have seen] Rather, as I…
8. even as I have seen] Rather, as I have seen. The words might be also rendered, when I saw those that ploughed iniquity … they reaped it. Eliphaz draws a distinction between two classes of men, on both of whom affliction may come—the righteous, who may no doubt sin and be chastised for their sin, but who do not perish under their chastisements (see ch. Job_5:17 seq.), and the wicked, whose sinning is, so to speak, a business which they practise as the tiller ploughs and sows his field, and whose harvest is unfailing. The words iniquity and wickedness may mean also affliction and trouble. The two pairs of things correspond to one another. That which the wicked plough and cast into the ground may be iniquity and wickedness, they reap it in the form of affliction and trouble. For the figure comp. Hos_8:7; Hos_10:13.
8–27. Third, surely instead of despairing and murmuring under his afflictions Job should follow a very different way. I, says Eliphaz, putting himself in Job’s place, would seek unto God, all whose doings are directed to the saving of the meek and disappointing the devices of the evil. When He smites, He smites only that He may the more profoundly heal. Happy should the man count himself whom God corrects. for his correction is meant to awaken him out of his dream of evil and lead him into a broader, clearer life, rich in blessings, and to be crowned with a ripe and peaceful end.
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This beautiful speech consists of three parts, of which the first contains a single division, ch. Job_4:1-11; the second, two divisions, ch. Job_4:12-21, and ch. Job_5:1-7; and so also the third, ch. Job_5:8-16, and ch. Job_5:17-27.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) They that plow iniquity.—Comp. Gal_6:7-8; and comp. also…
(8) They that plow iniquity.—Comp. Gal_6:7-8; and comp. also the strange expression of Isa_5:18.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Even as I have seen; rather, according as I…
Even as I have seen; rather, according as I have seen so far, that is, as my observation goes (see the Revised Version, which is supported by Professor Lee and Canon Cook). They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. (comp. Pro_22:8 Hos_8:7 Hos_10:13 Gal_6:7, Gal_6:8) The words translated "iniquity" and "wickedness" express in the original both moral and physical evil. Men sew the one and reap the other. Eliphaz extends this general rule into a universal law, or, at any rate, declares that he has never known an exception. He has not, therefore, been grieved and perplexed, like David, by "seeing the ungodly in such prosperity". (Psa_73:3) He would seem not to have been a man of very keen observation.
A true principle falsely applied.
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We have now reached the kernel of the controversy with which Job and his friends are to be engaged. While as the prologue shows the primary purpose of the Book of Job is to refute Satan"s low, sneering insinuation implied in the words, "Doth Job serve God for nought?" and to prove that God can and does inspire disinterested devotion, the long discussion among the friends is concerned with the problem of suffering, and the old orthodox notion that it was just the punishment of sin, showing the inadequacy of that notion, and the deep mystery of the whole subject. Now we are introduced to this perplexing question. It comes before us in the form of a principle that is undoubtedly true, although the application of it by Job"s friends turned out to be egregiously false.
I THE TRUTH OF THE PRINCIPLE.
1. This is communicated in the New Testament by St. Paul, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". (Gal_6:7)
2. This is in accordance with experience. Eliphaz had seen it. We need not suppose that he had been deceived by some strange hallucination. We must all have observed how men make or mar their own fortunes. We know what will be the end of the career of the idle and dissipated. We are constantly watching the triumph of diligence and prudence.
3. This is after the analogy of nature. Then the harvest is according to the sowing, and it is determined by absolute laws. But there is no chaos in the human sphere. Moral causation works there as strictly as physical causation in the outer world. There is no escaping from the natural consequences of our deeds. He who sows the wind will most assuredly reap the whirlwind.
4. This is just. Job"s friends were right in feeling that the wicked ought to suffer and that the good ought to be blessed. The attempt to evade the great law of causation in the spiritual sphere is as immoral as it is futile. Why should any one expect to be saved firm the harvest which he has himself sown?
II THE FALSE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE. The whole Book of Job demonstrates that Job"s friends were wrong in applying this principle to the case of the patriarch. But why was it not applicable?
1. They anticipated the harvest. The harvest is the end of the world. Some first-fruits may be gathered earlier; often we see the evil consequences of misdeeds ripening rapidly. But this is not always the case. Meanwhile we can judge of no life until we have seen the whole of it. In the end Job reaped an abundant harvest of blessings. (Job_42:10-17)
2. They ignored the variety of causes. It is a recognized rule of logic that while you can always argue from the cause to the effect, you cannot safely reverse the process and reason back from the effect to the cause, because the same effect may come from any one of a number of causes. Job might bring calamity on himself, and if he did wrong he would bring it in the long run. But other causes might produce it. In this case it was not Job, but Satan, who brought it. It was not the husbandman, but an enemy, who sowed tares in the field.
3. They mistook the nature of the harvest. The man who sows iniquity will not necessarily reap temporal calamity. He will get his natural harvest, which is corruption, but he may have wealth and temporal, external prosperity on earth. And the man who sows goodness may not reap money, immunity from trouble, etc.; for these things are not the natural products of what he sows. They are not "after its kind." But he will reap "eternal life." Nothing that had happened to Job indicated that he would not gather that best of all harvests. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,…
Job_4:8-9
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
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Sowing and reaping
Eliphaz speaks of himself here as an observer of Gods providence; and the result of his observations is, the discernment of the law, that they who plow iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same. Was Eliphas wrong in this? No. He perceived a very great and important law of the kingdom. Where, then, was he wrong? It was in applying this to Job, and in so easily concluding that his severe sufferings were the consequence of his own individual sins. The friends often expressed most beautiful and important truths, and only failed because they misapplied them. For this law, compare Hos_8:7; Hos_10:12-13; Gal_6:7-8. We see the operation of this law in the natural world. There, in that world, as people sow, so they reap; nor do they ever expect it to be otherwise. But in the moral and spiritual world, nothing is more common than to meet with those who sow iniquity, and yet do not expect to reap of the same, either in this world or in the world to come. Men do not expect any consequences to follow a life of carelessness and impenitence. It may be that you have seen solemn and affecting instances of the operation of this law; if not, ministers of Christ will tell you that they have seen them only too often. They have seen those who have lived careless and self-indulgent lives struggle at last in vain. The hardened heart was but the fulfilment of the solemn law of Gods kingdom. Amongst the many ways of sowing to the flesh, there is one which we cannot omit. It is the indulgence of pride and self-confident feelings. St. Paul speaks of sowing to the Spirit. In which way have you been sowing? Do you wish to escape the consequences--the harvest of misery--which, in the very nature of things, will follow your sowing to the flesh? Through grace you may do it. (George Wagner.)
An old axiom
There was truth underlying the proposition set forth by Eliphaz, applicable to all ages and states of the world. The axiom is a very old one as propounded by Jobs expostulator; it may have been older than he; but it is not so old now as to have become obsolete; nor will it ever become so while the world is the same world, and its Governor is the same God. As St. Paul reproduced it in his day, so may we in ours. Its principle is incorporated with this dispensation as much as with the last. It is its application that is modified under the Gospel; the principle is just the same. It is as true now as it was of old time, that men reap as they sow; that the harvest of their recompense is according to the agriculture of their actions. The difference in the truth, as propounded during the age of Moses, and as recognised in the days of the Son of Man, is, that during the latter, its confirmation and realisation are thrown further forward. The distinction is indicated by the respective forms into which the axiom is cast by Eliphaz and St. Paul. The one saith, They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. The other, Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Eliphaz makes both portions of this moral process, present, palpable, perspicuous. The apostle severs the two; projecting the latter portion into the future. With the Jew, this truth was a fact of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. With us, it is rather a matter of faith for the future, the far off, the eternal. Eliphaz states the subject in accordance with the order of the past dispensation; as doth St. Paul with the genius of this. In the eyes of the ancient Israelite, the doctrine of Divine retribution was like some mountain of his native country, which upreared its brow close over against him, overshadowing him whithersoever he went; its rugged aspect being all the more sharply defined through the sunshine of temporal prosperity in which his nation reposed, so long as the people were obedient unto the voice of the Lord their God. As to us, the mountain is in the distance; far away, as Sinai itself is, from many a shore on which the standard of the Redeemers Cross hath been planted; but visible in the distance still, though its outline be rendered indistinct in the twilight of that mystery which now encompasseth Gods government of our world. At the period when Eliphaz reasoned, a state of things had just been inaugurated, under which, as a rule, retribution of a temporal kind was to follow every transgression and disobedience; when punishment was to be contemporaneous with the commission of crime; and when a man would begin to reap the fruit of his deeds shortly after his sowing. And the reasoner could not understand how the patriarch, or anyone else, could be an exception to the rule; still less, that a state of things inaugurated by both the teaching and the history of Jesus Christ, under which the rule itself would become the exception, was to succeed. That was a state under which God judged men for their sins continually and instantaneously; this a state under which God is not judging them; seeing He hath appointed a day in which He will judge them by that Man whom He hath ordained; through whose intercession at the right hand of the Father, judgment is at present suspended. Now it is our consolation to know that whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth; then the man whom the Lord chastened, He might have had a controversy with, and was visiting for his misdeeds. (Alfred Bowen Evans.)
Is the old axiom true still
1. It is so far true as to assure us that there is a righteous Governor and a just Judge of the world. We cannot apply the rule laid down by Eliphaz. It is a rule to us no longer. We have no right to fix upon any individual or nation upon earth, and to affirm that Almighty God is dealing with the one or the other in a way of retribution, because they may be suffering such and such things. But, notwithstanding this, there is a principle at work in the affairs of men, so far manifest as to show that the world is not left to take its chance, and that the children of men cannot do as they please.
2. It is so far true as it hath respect to the natural constitutions of men. Men cannot transgress the principles of their nature with impunity, nor run counter to the rules of their constitution unharmed. Nature is not to be trifled with. And the retribution that followeth the violation of physical laws is a sure pledge of a retribution that will follow the infringement of moral.
3. It is true so far as to obviate the necessity of our ever taking vengeance into our own hands. God repayeth that we need not. Vengeance is His, that it may not be ours. It has been said, God avengeth those that do not avenge themselves.
4. It is true so far as to inspire us with a salutary fear for ourselves. There is to be a resurrection of action as well as of agents; of deeds as well as of doers; of works as well as of men. And we know not how soon, as to some of its details, this resurrection may take place. The transgressor is never safe. Whatsoever wrong any man hath done may be required of him at any time. (Alfred Bowen Evans.)
The life of the sinner a foolish agriculture
I. Human life is a sowing and a reaping. All the actions of a mans life are inseparable, united by the law of causation. One grows out of another as plants out of seed. The sowing and the reaping, strange to say, go on at the same time. In reaping what we sowed yesterday, we sow what we shall have to reap tomorrow.
II. Lifes reaping is determined by its sowing. I have seen, they that plow iniquity, etc. Like begets like everywhere, the same species of seed sown will be reaped in fruit. He that soweth hemlock will not reap wheat, but crops of hemlock. All moral actions are moral seeds deposited in the soul.
III. The reaping of the sinner is a terrible destiny. What a destiny this: to be reaping wickedness, to be reaping whirlwinds of agony. From this subject learn--
1. The great solemnity of life. There is nothing trifling. The most volatile sin is a seed that must grow, and must be reaped. Take care!
2. The conscious rectitude of the sinners doom. What is hell? Reaping the fruit of sinful conduct. The sinner feels this, and his conscience will not allow him to complain of his fate.
3. The necessity for a godly heart. All actions and words proceed from the heart: out of it are the issues of life. Hence the necessity of regeneration. (Homilist.)
Sinful sowing and penal reaping
1. That to be a wicked man is no easy task; he must go to plough for it. It is ploughing, and you know ploughing is laborious, yea, it is hard labour.
2. That there is an art in wickedness. It is ploughing, or, as the word imports, an artificial working. Some are curious and exact in shaping, polishing, and setting off their sin. So to say such a man is an abomination worker, or a lie maker, notes him not only industrious, but crafty, or (as the prophet speaks) wise to do evil.
3. That wicked men expect benefit in ways of sin, and look to be gainers by being evil-doers. They make iniquity their plough; and a mans plough is so much his profit, that it is grown into a proverb, to call that (whatsoever it is) by which a man makes his living or his profit, his plough. Every man tills in expectation of a crop; who would put his plough into the ground to receive nothing? It is even so with wicked men, when they are stoning, they think themselves thriving, or laying up that in the earth a while, which will grow and increase to a plentiful harvest. What strange fancies have many to be rich, to be great, by ways of wickedness! Thus they plough in hope, but they shall never be partakers of their hope.
4. That every sinful act persisted in shall have a certain sorrowful reward.
5. That the punishment of sin may come long after the committing of sin. The one is the seedtime, and the other a reaping time; there is a great distance of time between sowing and reaping. The seeds of sin may lie many years under the furrows.
6. That the punishment of sin shall be proportionable to the degrees of sin. He shall reap the same, saith the text, the same in degree. If ye sow sparingly, ye shall reap sparingly; on the other side, if ye sow plentifully, ye shall reap plentifully.
7. Punishment shall not exceed the desert of sin.
8. That the punishment of sin shall be like the sin in kind. It shall be the same, not only in degree, but also in likeness. Punishment often bears the image and superscription of sin upon it. You may see the fathers face and feature in the child. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal_6:7). (J. Caryl.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:8 The harvest metaphor illustrates the scriptural principle that…
4:8 The harvest metaphor illustrates the scriptural principle that behavior merits judgment (Prov 22:8; Hos 8:7; Rom 2:9-11; Gal 6:7-8). The New Testament describes the final judgment as a harvest (Matt 13:39). Jesus rejected simplistic attempts to analyze people’s lives by this principle (Luke 13:4; John 9:1-3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.