Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
Parallel Translations
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Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
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Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
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Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Proverbs 17:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 109:4-13 In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer. They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Set a wicked man over him. Let an adversary stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come out guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin. Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins. Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor. Let there be no one to extend kindness to him, neither let there be anyone to have pity on his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
- Psalms 55:12-15 For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him. But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend. We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company. Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
- Romans 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men.
- 1 Peter 3:9 not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
- Psalms 35:12 They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.
- Psalms 38:20 They who render evil for good are also adversaries to me, because I follow what is good.
- 2 Samuel 12:10 Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’
- 1 Samuel 24:17 He said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas I have done evil to you.
- Matthew 27:5 He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:15 See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good for one another and for all.
- Jeremiah 18:20-21 Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men be killed and their young men struck by the sword in battle.
- 1 Samuel 31:2-3 The Philistines overtook Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers.
- 2 Samuel 21:1-14 There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); and David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And with what should I make atonement, that you may bless Yahweh’s inheritance?” The Gibeonites said to him, “It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” He said, “I will do for you whatever you say.” They said to the king, “The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.” The king said, “I will give them.” But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before Yahweh, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest. Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who were hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer for the land.
- Matthew 27:25 All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 17:13 Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall…
Pro 17:13 Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
Ver. 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, &c.] Ingratitude is a monster in nature, and doth therefore carry so much more detestation, as it is more odious even to themselves that have blotted out the image of God. {a} Some vices are such as nature smiles upon, though frowned at by divine justice; not so this. Lycurgus would make no law against it, because he thought none could be so absurd as to fall into it. Among the Athenians there was an action, αποστασιου, of a master against a servant ungrateful for his manumission, not doing his duty to his late master: such were again to be made bond-slaves. {b} Who can choose but abhor that abominable act of Michael Balbus, who that night that his prince (Leo Armenius) had pardoned and released him, got out and slew him? {c} And that of Muleasses, king of Tunis, who cruelly tortured to death the manifet and mesner, by whose means especially he had aspired to the kingdom; grieving to see them live to whom he was so much beholden. {d} And that of Dr Watson, bishop of Lincoln in Queen Mary’s days, who, being with Bonnet at the examination of Mr Rough, martyr (a man that had been a means to save Watson’s life in the days of King Edward VI), to requite him that good turn, detected him there to be a pernicious heretic, who did more harm in the northern parts than a hundred more of his opinion. {e} Whereunto may be added that of William Parry, who having been for burglary condemned to die, was saved by Queen Elizabeth’s pardon; but he (ungrateful wretch) sought to requite her by vowing her death, anno dom. 1584. {f} To render good for evil is divine, good for good is human, evil for evil is brutish, evil for good is devilish.
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Evil shall not depart from his house,] i.e., From his person and posterity, though haply he may escape the lash of man’s law for such an abhorred villany. See this fulfilled in Saul’s family, for his unworthy dealing with David; in Muleasses, and many others. Jeremiah, in a spirit of prophecy, bitterly curseth such, and foretelleth the utter ruin of them and theirs, {Pro 18:20-21, &c.} "Shall evil be recompensed for good?" saith he. "Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and let their wives be widows. Let a cry be heard from their houses," &c. {Jer 18:20-22}
{a} Nihil est tam inhumanum, &c., quam committere, ut beneficio non dicam indignus sed victus esse videri. - Cic.
{b} Val. Max., lib. ii. cap. 1.
{c} Zonaras, in Annal.
{d} Turk. Hist., 642.
{e} Acts and Mon., fol. 1843.
{f} Speed., fol. 1178.
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 From his person and family, because such a man…
From his person and family, because such a man is most hateful to God and to all mankind; God will punish him, and men will not pity nor relieve him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain A malicious mischievous man is here represented, 1. As…
A malicious mischievous man is here represented, 1. As ungrateful to his friends. He oftentimes is so absurd and insensible of kindnesses done him that he renders evil for good. David met with those that were his adversaries for his love, Psa 109:4. To render evil for evil is brutish, but to render evil for good is devilish. He is an ill-natured man who, because he is resolved not to return a kindness, will revenge it. 2. As therein unkind to his family, for he entails a curse upon it. This is a crime so heinous that it shall be punished, not only in his person, but in his posterity, for whom he thus treasures up wrath. The sword shall not depart from David's house because he rewarded Uriah with evil for his good services. The Jews stoned Christ for his good works; therefore is his blood upon them and upon their children.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Whoso rewardeth evil for good,.... As the enemies of…
Whoso rewardeth evil for good,.... As the enemies of David and Christ rewarded them, Psa 35:12; this is base ingratitude, contrary to the law and light of nature; worse than beastly, is really devilish;
evil shall not depart from his house; from him and his family; they shall be continually visited with one disease and calamity or another; so hateful and offensive is the sin of ingratitude to God, and therefore ought to be carefully avoided. This might be illustrated by the judgments of God on the nation of the Jews, for their ingratitude to Christ.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good] Here is…
Verse 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good] Here is a most awful warning. As many persons are guilty of the sin of ingratitude, and of paying kindness with unkindness, and good with evil, it is no wonder we find so much wretchedness among men; for God's word cannot fail; evil shall not depart from the houses and families of such persons.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (Compare Psa 7:4; Psa 35:12).
(Compare Psa 7:4; Psa 35:12).
evil--injury to another (Pro 13:21).
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 13. Rewardeth evil for good, etc. — This probably…
13. Rewardeth evil for good, etc. — This probably implies that the example of ingratitude in the head of a family will be followed by his offspring, and thus be returned upon himself and his household continuously. Compare 1Sa_25:21; 2Sa_3:29; Rom_12:17; 1Th_5:15; 1Pe_3:9.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Whoso rewardeth evil for good. This was David"s complaint…
Whoso rewardeth evil for good. This was David"s complaint of the churlish Nabal. (1Sa_25:21) Ingratitude shall surely he punished. Evil shall not depart from his house. Terribly has the ingratitude of the Jews been visited. They cried in their madness, "His blood be on us and on our children!" and their punishment is still going on. Injunctions on this subject are frequent in the New Testament. (see Mat_5:39 Rom_12:17 1Th_5:15 1Pe_3:9) The Talmud says, "Do not throw a stone into the well whose waters you have drunk." The Greeks felt the sting of ingratitude. Thus Leiodes complains to Ulysses ("Od.," 22:319) Wv ouk esti cariv metopisy euergewn. Two sayings of Publius Syrus are quoted ("Sent.," vv. 219, 274): "Ingratus unus omnibus miseris nocet;" "Malignos fieri maxime ingrati docent."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, in an…
v. 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, in an excess of ingratitude, evil shall not depart from his house, for misfortune is the penalty of such acts of base ingratitude.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 evil will never leave his house
evil will never leave his house
Here "evil" is spoken of as if it were a person who would not leave the man's house. Here the word "house" may be taken literally, but it is also a metonym for his family. AT: "bad things will continue to happen to him and his family" or "bad things will never stop happening to him and his family" (See: Personification and Metonymy)
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The beginning of conflict is like one who releases water everywhere
This compares how easily a conflict spreads to how spilled water flows everywhere. AT: "Starting a conflict is like pumping water and letting it run everywhere" (See: Simile)
has broken out
"starts"or "begins"
translationWords
evil
good
house
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.