Commentary - Proverbs 20:22

Bird's-eye view

This proverb presents a sharp, practical antithesis that lies at the heart of godly living. It contrasts the carnal, reflexive impulse for personal vengeance with the spiritual discipline of faith-filled waiting. When wronged, the natural man immediately thinks in terms of retaliation, of "getting even." This proverb directly forbids that course of action. But it does not leave the wronged individual helpless; it provides the true remedy. Instead of taking matters into your own hands, you are to entrust your cause to the Lord. The prohibition, "Do not say," is followed by the positive command, "Hope in Yahweh." This hope is not a passive, uncertain wish, but a confident expectation that God, the righteous judge, will in fact act. He will bring about a just resolution; He will save. The verse, therefore, is a call to renounce personal vengeance in favor of divine justice, which is a foundational principle of covenant life.

In essence, this is a very practical outworking of the doctrine of God's sovereignty. If God is truly the judge of all the earth, then He is the one to whom all appeals for justice must ultimately be made. To usurp this role is to act as a functional atheist, as though there were no higher court of appeals. This proverb commands the believer to step back, refuse the temptation to "repay evil," and instead to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. It is a call to faith, patience, and a deep-seated trust in the perfect character and timing of God.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 20 is a collection of sayings that largely deal with the character of a righteous man in contrast to a fool, particularly in matters of justice, commerce, and personal integrity. The chapter speaks of the king's role in justice (v. 8, 26), the Lord's hatred of false weights (v. 10, 23), and the sovereignty of God over a man's steps (v. 24). Verse 22 fits squarely within this matrix. In a world where injustice and evil are real occurrences, this proverb provides the righteous man with his marching orders. It is not the king's job alone to maintain justice; every individual has a role. That role, however, is not to enact personal, vigilante justice. Rather, it is to defer to the ultimate King, Yahweh Himself, who establishes earthly authorities and who reserves ultimate vengeance for Himself. This proverb is a crucial piece of the Bible's consistent teaching on the subject of justice and retaliation.

Key Issues

Vengeance is Mine

One of the most common misunderstandings in the Christian world is the notion that vengeance itself is a sin. But the Scriptures do not teach this. The Bible is quite clear that vengeance is a necessary component of justice. The problem is not with vengeance, but with the avenger. Who has the right to repay evil? The consistent answer of Scripture is that vengeance belongs to God. "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense," the Lord declares in Deuteronomy 32:35. The Apostle Paul picks this up in Romans 12, where he quotes this very principle as the reason why believers must not seek their own revenge.

Our proverb is a beautiful Old Testament expression of this same truth. "Do not say, 'I will repay evil.'" Why not? Because you are not the one appointed to that task. It is above your pay grade. To take up the sword of vengeance for yourself is to steal a prerogative that belongs to God alone. But God does not always exercise this vengeance directly. As Paul goes on to argue in the very next chapter, Romans 13, God has deputized the civil magistrate as His "avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer" (Rom. 13:4). So, the believer's response to being wronged is not to do nothing. It is to refuse personal retaliation, and instead to "give place to wrath" by appealing to God, which in many cases means appealing to the authorities God has established for that very purpose. This proverb commands us to get our ego out of the equation, step aside, and let God handle the matter through His own means and in His own time.

Verse by Verse Commentary

22a Do not say, “I will repay evil”...

The prohibition strikes at the very root of the sin, which is the internal resolve. "Do not say..." This includes saying it to others, but it begins with saying it in your heart. It is a warning against even entertaining the thought, against making a settled plan to get even. The impulse is natural to our fallen state. When someone hits us, we want to hit back, and usually a little harder. This is what the world calls justice, but what the Bible calls sin. The phrase "repay evil" is simple and direct. It is the lex talionis, the law of retaliation, privately administered. The proverb commands us to mortify this desire at its inception. Before you have even clenched your fist, before you have composed the angry email, the Word of God intervenes and says, "Stop. Do not even go there in your heart."

22b ...Hope in Yahweh, and He will save you.

The Bible rarely gives a negative command without supplying a positive one to replace it. We are not just to empty our hearts of vengeance; we are to fill them with something else. And that something is hope in the Lord. The Hebrew word for "hope" here is not a flimsy, fingers-crossed kind of wishing. It means to wait with confident expectation. It is the posture of a man who has filed a lawsuit in a court where he knows the judge is righteous and will not be bribed. He waits for the verdict. This is an active, not a passive, waiting. It is a deliberate act of faith, entrusting the entire situation, the injustice, the personal pain, the desire for vindication, into the hands of a competent and righteous God.

And this hope is not groundless, for it comes with a promise: "and He will save you." The word "save" here (yasha) is a broad term for deliverance. It can mean salvation from sin, but in this context, it means deliverance from the evil that was done to you. It means God will rescue, vindicate, and restore you. How will He do it? The proverb doesn't say. It might be through the civil authorities. It might be through a remarkable providential reversal. It might be that He brings your enemy to repentance. It might not be until the final judgment. The "how" and "when" are His business. Our business is to wait, to trust, and to obey, confident that the Judge of all the earth will do right.

Application

This proverb is intensely practical for every Christian, because every Christian will be wronged. It will happen at work, in the neighborhood, on the internet, and sometimes even in the church or in our own homes. When it happens, our flesh, the world, and the devil will all scream in unison for us to repay evil. We will be told that to "turn the other cheek" is weak, that to fail to "stand up for ourselves" is to be a doormat. This proverb, and the whole counsel of God, tells us that such thinking is a lie.

True strength is not found in lashing out, but in the self-control that enables a man to entrust his cause to God. It takes far more character to wait on the Lord than it does to fire off a bitter retort. To hope in Yahweh means we actively pray for our enemies, as Jesus commanded. It means we look for opportunities to do good to them, as Paul commanded in Romans 12. It means we refuse to rehearse the offense in our minds, nursing a grudge. And it means we trust that God's justice is perfect, while ours is always tainted with pride and sinful passion.

The ultimate reason we can do this is the gospel. We, who deserved the full force of God's eternal vengeance, have been shown mercy. Jesus Christ, on the cross, absorbed the wrath we deserved. He was wronged more than any man in history, yet He did not repay evil. He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly (1 Pet. 2:23). Because God did not repay us for our evil, we are now freed and empowered to not repay others for the evil they do to us. We leave it with God, knowing that He will save us, just as He saved us from our greatest enemy, our own sin.