Proverbs 25:21
in Proverbs 25If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
KJV
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
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This verse in Proverbs 25
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
A precept reproduced by Paul Rom 12:20; the second clause of which seems at first sight to suggest a motive incompatible with a true charity. Lev 16:12 suggests an explanation. The high priest on the Day of Atonement was to take his censer, to fill it with “coals of fire,” and then to put the incense thereon for a sweet-smelling savor. So it is here.
This site's exposition
If your enemy is hungry
on Proverbs 25:21-22
Paul quotes "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat" at Romans 12:20. The "burning coals" are read two ways, as shame that may soften an enemy's conscience or as a figure for God's coming judgment. The promise that "the LORD will reward you" stands under either reading.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
This [scriptural passage] seems to prescribe a crime or a vice; therefore, it is a figure of speech directing that we are to participate in the Lord's passion and treasure up in grateful and salutary remembrance the fact that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us. Scripture says, "If your enemy is hungry, give him food; if he is thirsty, give him drink." This undoubtedly prescribes a kindness, but the part that follows—"For by so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head"—you might suppose was commanding a crime of malevolence. So, do not doubt that it is a figurative expression. Although it can have a twofold interpretation, by one intending harm, by the other intending a good, charity should call you away from the former to kindness, so that you may understand that the coals of fire are the burning lamentations of repentance by which that person's pride is healed and he grieves that he has been an enemy of the one who relieves his misery.
The apostle Paul teaches us in the clearest possible way that alms are to be distributed to everybody, when he says, "Let us be tireless, while we have the time, in doing good to all, though supremely to those at home in the faith." This indeed makes it plain enough that in works of this kind the just are to be given preference. Who else, after all, are we to understand by "those at home in the faith," since elsewhere it is stated plainly, "The just person lives by faith"? That doesn't mean, though, that we must close our hearts to other people, even sinners, not even if they adopt a hostile attitude toward us. The Savior himself says, after all, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." Nor is the point passed over in silence in the books of the Old Testament; one reads there, you see, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink," a text the apostle also makes use of in the New.
The Holy Spirit speaks in the same manner through Solomon: "If your enemy is hungry, give him to eat; if he is thirsty, give him to drink; in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head." At this point we must watch …
A commentator
Desert FathersThe Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks · Written before 500.
proposed
He also said, 'Evil cannot drive out evil. If anyone hurts you, do good to him and your good will destroy his evil.'
The Medieval Church1 voice
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him," etc. This can be understood both of physical food and spiritual nourishment.
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat,.... Which includes all manner of food; whatever persons may have in their houses, that they should bring out and feed the hungry with, even though an enemy; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; which was what was usually and in common drank in those countries.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
If thine enemy be hungry - See this and the next verse explained, Rom 12:20 (note).
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| רָעֵ֣ב | raev | [is] hungry | H7457 → | |
| שֹׂ֭נַאֲךָ | sonaakha | [one who] hates you | H8130 → | 146 times |
| הַאֲכִלֵ֣הוּ | haakhilehu | give to eat him | H398 → | 810 times |
| לָ֑חֶם | lachem | food | H3899 → | 298 times |
| וְאִם־ | veim- | and if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| צָ֝מֵ֗א | tzame' | thirsty | H6771 → | |
| הַשְׁקֵ֥הוּ | hashkehu | give to drink him | H8248 → | |
| מָֽיִם׃ | mayim | water | H4325 → | 581 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
רָעֵ֣ב[is] hungry
raevH7457 →
שֹׂ֭נַאֲךָ[one who] hates you
sonaakhaH8130 →146 times
הַאֲכִלֵ֣הוּgive to eat him
haakhilehuH398 →810 times
לָ֑חֶםfood
lachemH3899 →298 times
וְאִם־and if
veim-H518 →1069 times
צָ֝מֵ֗אthirsty
tzame'H6771 →
הַשְׁקֵ֥הוּgive to drink him
hashkehuH8248 →
מָֽיִם׃water
mayimH4325 →581 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 5:44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
it leads to
- Romans 12:14
Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.
- 1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
- Luke 6:27–28
But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
- Romans 12:20–21
On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
- Proverbs 25:21–22
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
- Romans 12:14
Through
Proverbs 24:17Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
it leads to
- Obadiah 1:12
But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their…
- Job 31:29
If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—
- 1 Corinthians 13:6–7
Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
- Obadiah 1:12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies8
About Proverbs
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 3:16.24; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 164A.2; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 36:5; Desert Fathers, The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.