Context No. 3371 of 4322 · Proverbs

Proverbs 25:17-28: in context

17Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you. 18A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow. 19Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a lame foot. 20As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. 21If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you. 23The north wind produces rain; so a backbiting tongue brings an angry face. 24It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than to share a house with a contentious woman. 25Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. 26Like a muddied spring and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. 27It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor. 28Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint.

This cluster of proverbs offers plain wisdom for daily life, and two threads stand out. First, how to treat an enemy: if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you. And second, a closing image: a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Kindness, not revenge, is the wise and godly answer to an enemy, and Paul later takes up this very verse. To return good for hostility is not weakness but a strength that overcomes evil with good. And the last proverb turns the eye inward: a person who cannot govern his own spirit is defenseless, exposed like a ruined city whose walls have been thrown down, open to every invader. Passions ungoverned will overrun us at will. The wisdom here runs both outward and inward: overcome enmity with kindness, and guard the walls of your own self-control.

Do I answer my enemies with kindness rather than revenge, and do I guard the walls of my own self-control, without which I am as exposed as a broken city?

Sources

Proverbs 25:21: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink."
Proverbs 25:28: "Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint."
Romans 12:20: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink."