He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
Parallel translations
- WEB He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- KJV He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
- NKJV He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow, And the rod of his anger will fail.
- NASB One who sows injustice will reap disaster, And the rod of his fury will perish.
- NLT Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will come to an end.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and his angry power will fail. It matters because evil and oppression bring their own downfall.
Overview
The principle of sowing and reaping applies to wickedness — injustice yields trouble, and the oppressor's furious might collapses (Galatians 6:7-8; Job 4:8). God's moral order ensures that evil rebounds on the evildoer. The verse warns against injustice and assures that oppression will not finally prevail.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gal 6:7–8Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Job 4:8As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Ps 125:3For the scepter of the wicked will not rest upon the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous will not put forth their hands to injustice.
- Isa 30:31For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD; He will strike them with His scepter.
- Hos 10:13You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,
- Prov 14:3The proud speech of a fool brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.
- Isa 10:5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.
- Isa 9:4For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.
- Isa 14:29Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying serpent from its egg.
- Hos 8:7For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 22:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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