Proverbs 20:22 - Exposition

Say not thou, I will recompense evil ( Proverbs 24:29 ). The jus talonis is the natural feeling of man, to do to others as they have done unto you, to requite evil with evil. But the moralist teaches a better lesson, urging men not to study revenge, and approaching nearer to Christ's injunction, which gives the law of charity, "Whatsoever ye would ( οπσα ἂν θέλητε ) that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" ( Matthew 7:12 ). The Christian rule is expounded fully by St. Paul ( Romans 12:14 , Romans 12:17 , etc). It was not unknown to the Jews; for we read in Tobit 4:15, "Do that to no man which thou hatest;" and Hillel enjoins, "Do not thou that to thy neighbour which thou hatest when it is done to thee." Even the heathens had excogitated this great principle. There is a saying of Aristotle, preserved by Diogenes Laertius, "Act towards your friends as you would wish them to act towards you." The Chinese have a proverb, "Water does not remain on the mountain, or vengeance in a great mind." Wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee. The pious writer urges the injured person to commit his cause to the Lord, not in the hope of seeing vengeance taken on his enemy, but in the certainty that God will help him to bear the wrong and deliver him in his own good time and way. The Christian takes St. Peter's view, "Who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good?" ( 1 Peter 3:13 ), knowing that "all things work together for good to them that love God" ( Romans 8:28 ; comp. Ecclesiasticus 2:2, 6). Septuagint, "Say not, I will avenge myself on my enemy, but wait on the Lord, that ( ἵνα ) he may help thee." The last clause may be grammatically rendered thus, but it is more in accordance with the spirit st' the proverb, as Delitzsch observes, to regard it as a promise. Vulgate, et liberabit te.