Read the passage and its setting
Proverbs 25:21–22, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Proverbs 25:21–22
Generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility — If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if...
The Main Point
uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
What Is Happening Here?
The Hezekiah heading introduces royal inquiry, court humility, conflict process, apt speech, trustworthy service, enemy-care, household strain, self-control, and limits on honor. In this unit, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Proverbs 25:15–20 (“Friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries — By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft...”) immediately precedes this unit and contributes friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule.
Proverbs 25:23–26 (“Speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence — The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry...”) follows and develops speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care.
Follow the Wisdom Collection
See why this section appears here and how the author's wisdom movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
The edited sequence places this unit after Proverbs 25:15–20 so that friendship, neighbor-love, loyalty, and boundaries, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, kingship, public authority, and accountable rule is tested or extended through generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life.
Follow the Saying or Discourse
Opening (25:21): the unit uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”.
Development (25:21–22): adjacent lines test generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
Close (25:22): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”, creating the next supported pause.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 25:21–22 retains its own Verse Lens role and does not borrow a neighboring verse's claim.
Collection context
The superscription and placement identify this unit inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men”: The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to...”
·
This exact opening wording anchors the first move in Proverbs 25:21–22; later lines in the unit must not replace its distinct role.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Proverbs 25:21–22 as edited wisdom rather than a detached formula rules out these uses:
The saying does not promise a financial return, compel giving under manipulation, erase prudent limits, or let charity substitute for justice.
The saying does not transfer divine authority to a parent, pastor, ruler, spouse, nation, or political movement, and it does not authorize fear-based coercion.
The saying does not provide a scientific taxonomy, sanction cruelty to animals, or make one poetic comparison a law of nature or society.
The unit does not turn a normal wisdom pattern into a universal promise, a complete causal explanation of suffering, or a mandate broader than Proverbs 25:21–22.
Context check: Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
What Remains True Today
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Role -> contextual meaning -> enduring truth -> application for Proverbs 25:21–22.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
How does the application follow proportionately?
Identify the concrete need, preserve the recipient's agency, give transparently, and combine immediate help with fair structures. Bring the decision under truthful worship, moral accountability, and correction rather than using religious language to shield preference or power. Name the exact feature being compared, observe its limits, and test whether the analogy clarifies rather than stereotypes. For 25:21–22, begin with the line's actual role, state its contextual meaning, name this bounded enduring truth, and only then choose an action that protects dignity, safety, justice, and teachability.
A Concrete Example
A reader applying Proverbs 25:21–22 should first quote the line's actual contrast or image, then describe its work inside “Generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility — If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if...,” state the proportionate truth, name an exception or vulnerable person, and choose one accountable action rather than repeating a slogan.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 25:21–22 in your own words. Identify its form and collection, trace one line from role through contextual meaning and enduring truth to application, name one uncertainty, and reject one misuse explicitly.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 25:21–22 retains its own Verse Lens role and does not borrow a neighboring verse's claim.
Collection context
The superscription and placement identify this unit inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men”: The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to...”
This exact opening wording anchors the first move in Proverbs 25:21–22; later lines in the unit must not replace its distinct role.
How certain? very strongWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Edited wisdom and social setting
This unit belongs to solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men. Aitken's printed pages 405-422 and the book-specific sources identify family, community, agricultural, commercial, scribal, court, and royal settings as relevant possibilities without proving one setting for every saying.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
No older-English term in this unit requires a separate reader note after reading the complete KJV line in context.
Earlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israelite wisdom setting
The unit's first horizon is Israel's wisdom collection under fear of the LORD. Torah-shaped justice, creation, household teaching, royal responsibility, and community life may inform the language, but no cross-reference overrides this unit's own parallelism and collection role.
How certain? probableHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Responsible canonical location
Within the received book, The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism. This local unit is read through that movement before broader canonical comparison.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Textual and translation review
The complete NET notes attached to Proverbs 25:21–22 were inspected alongside MorphHB. No unreviewed alternative replaces the pinned KJV; any verse whose wording materially affects interpretation carries an expanded Lens and visible uncertainty rather than a silent emendation.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful readers disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters disagree over how much literary meaning adjacent sentence sayings gain from small clusters. This package treats Proverbs 25:21–22 as a useful local cluster while preserving each saying's independent force and marking the boundary as revisable.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The unit places practical wisdom under a moral order answerable to the LORD: Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Within Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The saying does not promise a financial return, compel giving under manipulation, erase prudent limits, or let charity substitute for justice.
A compact saying is easy to detach and universalize.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The saying does not transfer divine authority to a parent, pastor, ruler, spouse, nation, or political movement, and it does not authorize fear-based coercion.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The saying does not provide a scientific taxonomy, sanction cruelty to animals, or make one poetic comparison a law of nature or society.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The unit does not turn a normal wisdom pattern into a universal promise, a complete causal explanation of suffering, or a mandate broader than Proverbs 25:21–22.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. Wisdom begins with reverent accountability to the LORD and refuses to make human insight self-sufficient. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat” beside “and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”; by 25:22, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, reverent accountability before the LORD, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Proverbs 25:21–22, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 25:21-25:22
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1161-1164, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 25:21–22
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 25:21–22 and the Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men outline
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 25:21–22
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 25:21–22
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 25:21–22, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 25:21-25:22
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1161-1164, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 25:21–22
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 25:21–22 and the Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men outline
Open source ↗scholarly monograph chapter abstract and metadata
Context in the Sayings Collections
Stuart Weeks
Oxford University Press, in Early Israelite Wisdom, 2000
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Exact location: Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 25:21–22
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access journal article
The situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth in the Book of Proverbs
G. H. Wittenberg
Scriptura 21, 1987; open archive 2020
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Exact location: Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 25:21–22
Open source ↗