Proverbs - 14:14



14 The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways; likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 14:14.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways; And a good man'shall be satisfied from himself.
A fool shall be filled with his own ways, and the good man shall be above him.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and the good man from what is in himself.
From his ways is the backslider in heart filled, And a good man, from his fruits.
He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the reward of his doings.
The dissembler in heart shall have his fill from his own ways; And a good man shall be satisfied from himself.
The foolish will be filled up by his own ways. And the good man shall be above him.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Shall be satisfied - These words are not in the original. Repeat the verb from the first clause, "He who falls away from God in his heart, shall be filled with his own ways; and the good man (shall be filled) with that which belongs to him."

The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways -
1. Who is the backslider? סוג sug.
1. The man who once walked in the ways of religion, but has withdrawn from them.
2. The man who once fought manfully against the world, the devil, and the flesh; but has retreated from the battle, or joined the enemy.
3. The man who once belonged to the congregation of the saints, but is now removed from them, and is set down in the synagogue of Satan.
2. But who is the backslider in Heart?
1. Not he who was surprised and overcome by the power of temptation, and the weakness of his own heart.
2. But he who drinks down iniquity with greediness.
3. Who gives cheerful way to the bent of his own nature, and now delights in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind.
4. Who loves sin as before he loved godliness.
3. What are his own ways? Folly, sin, disappointment, and death; with the apprehension of the wrath of God, and the sharp twingings of a guilty conscience.
4. What is implied in being filled with his own ways? Having his soul saturated with folly, sin, and disappointment. At last ending here below in death, and then commencing an eternal existence where the fire is not quenched, and under the influence of that worm that never dieth. Alas, alas! who may abide when God doeth this?
And a good man shall be satisfied from himself -
1. Who is the good man? (איש טוב ish tob).
1. The man whose heart is right with God, whose tongue corresponds to his heart, and whose actions correspond to both.
2. The man who is every thing that the sinner and backslider are not.
2. He shall be satisfied from himself - he shall have the testimony of his own conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he has his conversation among men.
3. He shall have God's Spirit to testify with his spirit that he is a child of God. He hath the witness in himself that he is born from above. The Spirit of God in his conscience, and the testimony of God in his Bible, show him that he belongs to the heavenly family. It is not from creeds or confessions of faith that he derives his satisfaction: he gets it from heaven, and it is sealed upon his heart.

The backslider in heart (i) shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man [shall be satisfied] from himself.
(i) He who forsakes God will be punished, and made weary of his sins, in which he delighted.

The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways,.... One that is a backslider at heart, whose heart departeth from the Lord; in whom there is an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; and indeed apostasy begins at the heart, and shows itself in the life and conversation: there may be a backsliding when the heart does not wickedly depart from God; but is through the infirmity of the flesh and the force of temptation; from which backslidings the Lord's people are recovered, and which are healed by his grace; but here such an one is meant who willingly and heartily backslides; and such shall have the reward of their hands and actions given them, or the full and due punishment of their sins; they shall have their bellyful of their own wicked ways and works, the just recompense of reward for them;
and a good man shall be satisfied from himself; shall eat the fruit of his own doings, shall be blessed in his deeds, and have peace and satisfaction therein; though not salvation by them, or for them: he shall be satisfied with the grace of God bestowed on him and wrought in him; and, from a feeling experience of the grace of God within him, shall be satisfied that he has in heaven a better and an enduring substance; or he shall be satisfied "from above himself" (m), from the grace that is in Christ, out of the fulness which is in him; and shall be filled with all the fulness of God he is capable of; and especially in the other world, when he shall awake in his likeness. The Targum is,
"a good man shall be satisfied with his fear;''
and so the Syriac version, with the fear of his soul; it may be rendered, as by the Vulgate Latin version, "a good man shall be above him" (n); that is, above the backslider; shall be better tilled, and be more happy than he.
(m) "de super eo", Montanus; "de super semet", Schultens. (n) "Et super cum erit vir bonus", V. L. De Dieu.

Of all sinners backsliders will have the most terror when they reflect on their own ways.

filled . . . ways--receive retribution (Proverbs 1:31).
a good man . . . himself--literally, "is away from such," will not associate with him.

There follows a series of proverbs which treat of the wicked and the good, and of the relation between the foolish and the wise:
14 He that is of a perverse heart is satisfied with his own ways;
And a good man from himself.
We first determine the subject conception. סוּג לב (one turning aside τῆς καρδίας or τὴν καρδίαν) is one whose heart is perverted, נסוג, turned away, viz., from God, Psalm 44:19. The Book of Proverbs contains besides of this verb only the name of dross (recedanea) derived from it; סוּג, separated, drawn away, is such a half passive as סוּר, Isaiah 49:21, שׁוּב, Micah 2:8, etc. (Olsh. 245a). Regarding אישׁ טוב, vid., at Proverbs 12:2, cf. Proverbs 13:22 : a man is so called whose manner of thought and of action has as its impulse and motive self-sacrificing love. When it is said of the former that he is satisfied with his own ways, viz., those which with heart turned away from God he enters upon, the meaning is not that they give him peace or bring satisfaction to him (Lwenstein), but we see from Proverbs 1:31; Proverbs 18:20, that this is meant recompensatively: he gets, enjoys the reward of his wandering in estrangement from God. It is now without doubt seen that 14b expresses that wherein the benevolent man finds his reward. We will therefore not explain (after Proverbs 4:15, cf. Numbers 16:26; 2-Samuel 19:10): the good man turns himself away from him, or the good man stands over him (as Jerome, Venet., after Ecclesiastes 5:7); - this rendering gives no contrast, or at least a halting one. The מן of מעליו must be parallel with that of מדּרכיו. From the lxx, ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν διανοημάτων αὐτοῦ, the Syr. rightly: from the fruit (religiousness) of his soul; the Targ.: from his fruit. Buxtorf, against Cappellus, has already perceived that here no other phrase but the explanation of מעליו by ex eo quod penes se est lies at the foundation. We could, after Proverbs 7:14, also explain: from that which he perceives as his obligation (duty); yet that other explanation lies proportionally nearer, but yet no so that we refer the suffix to the backslider of 14a: in it (his fate) the good man is satisfied, for this contrast also halts, the thought is not in the spirit of the Book of Proverbs (for Proverbs 29:16 does not justify it); and in how totally different a connection of thought מעליו is used in the Book of Proverbs, is shown by Proverbs 24:17; but generally the Scripture does not use שׂבע of such satisfaction, it has, as in 14a, also in 14b, the recompensative sense, according to the fundamental principle, ὃ ἐὰν σπείρῃ ἄνθρωπος τοῦτο καὶ θερίσει (Galatians 6:7). The suffix refers back to the subject, as we say: רוּחי עלי, נפשׁי עלי (Psychol. p. 152). But considerations of an opposite kind also suggest themselves. Everywhere else מעל refers not to that which a man has within himself, but that which he carries without; and also that מעליו can be used in the sense of משּׁעליו, no evidence can be adduced: it must be admitted to be possible, since the writer of the Chronicles (2-Chronicles 1:4) ventures to use בהכין. Is מעליו thus used substantively: by his leaves (Aben Ezra and others)? If one compares Proverbs 11:28 with Psalm 1:3, this explanation is not absurd; but why then did not the poet rather use מפּריו? We come finally to the result, that ומעליו, although it admits a connected interpretation, is an error of transcription. But the correction is not וּמעלּיו (Elster) nor וּמעלליו (Cappellus), for עלּים and עללים, deeds, are words which do not exist; nor is it וּמפּעליו (Bertheau) nor וּמגּמליו (Ewald), but וּממּעלליו (which Cappellus regarded, but erroneously, as the lxx phrase); for (1) throughout almost the whole O.T., from Judges 2:19 to Zac 1:18, דרכים and מעללים are interchangeable words, and indeed almost an inseparable pair, cf. particularly Jeremiah 17:10; and (2) when Isaiah (Isaiah 3:10) says, אמרו צדיק כי־טוב כּי־פרי מעלליהם יאכלוּ, this almost sounds like a prophetical paraphrase of the second line of the proverb, which besides by this emendation gains a more rhythmical sound and a more suitable compass.
(Note: As here an ל too few is written, so at Isaiah 32:1 (ולשׂרים) and Psalm 74:14 (לציים) one too many.)

In heart - He who departs from God inwardly. Filled - With the fruit of his ways, the punishment of his sins. Satisfied - From the pious temper of his own heart, which cleaves to the Lord, he shall receive unspeakable comfort.

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