Proverbs 25:21-22

21, 22. If thine enemy be hungry… thirsty These verses are translated by the Seventy more literally than is their wont, only adding in Proverbs 25:22, τουτο γαρ ποιων , “in so doing.” In this form they are quoted by the Apostle Paul, Romans 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. Exodus 23:4-5; Job 31:29; Proverbs 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 ישׁלם , ( yeshallem,) to requite, rendered “recompense,” admits of this sense.