Do not withhold good from the deserving when it is within your power to act.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.
- KJV Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
- NKJV Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.
- NASB ¶Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it.
- NLT Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them.
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
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is owed when you have power to give it. Wisdom acts justly and generously toward neighbors.
Overview
Turning from inner security to social duty, the father commands active justice and generosity: do not deny what is rightly owed, whether wages, kindness, or aid, when you can supply it. Wisdom is not merely private but expresses itself in love of neighbor. This anticipates the law of love fulfilled in Christ and urged on his people (Gal 6:10; Jas 2:15-16).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Gal 6:10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.
- Jas 2:15–16Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
- Rom 13:7Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
- Jas 5:4Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Gen 31:29I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
- Mic 2:1Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Titus 2:14He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:27 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.