Bible Strands
Proverbs 22:8
He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The wisdom teacher addresses a student or ruler within a collection of practical instructions on social conduct and divine justice. The verse follows a statement on economic power dynamics and precedes a command to share with the poor.
The words — עַוְלָה ('av.lah) translates literally to unrighteousness, and יִכְלֶה (yikh.leh) means it will end or be destroyed. These terms anchor the verse’s agricultural metaphor in moral consequence.
The thread — The sow/reap principle appears in Job 4:8 and Galatians 6:7, while the imagery of a rod being broken connects to Isaiah 30:31, where God shatters Assyria with His scepter.
Why it lands — The text demands that readers recognize injustice and unchecked fury as self-destructive forces. It requires immediate cessation of oppressive behavior before the promised ruin arrives.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
Cross-references
- Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Job 4:8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Isaiah 30:31 For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD; He will strike them with His scepter.
- Psalms 125:3 For 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.
- Hosea 10:13 You 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,
- Proverbs 14:3 The proud speech of a fool brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.
- Isaiah 9:4 For 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.
- Isaiah 10:5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.
- Isaiah 14:29 Do 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.
- Hosea 8:7 For 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.