Texts in Conversation
Leviticus 19:18 commands against vengeance and instructs love for one’s neighbor, with Proverbs 20:22 echoing the same principle by warning not to repay evil but to leave judgment to God. Both texts highlight how wisdom and legal texts often overlap.
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Leviticus 19:18
Hebrew Bible
16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. 19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed together, you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear a garment made of two different kinds of material.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Proverbs 20:22
Hebrew Bible
20 The one who curses his father and his mother, his lamp will be extinguished in the blackest darkness. 21 An inheritance gained easily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end. 22 Do not say, “I will pay back evil!” Wait for the Lord, so that he may vindicate you. 23 The Lord abhors differing weights, and dishonest scales are wicked. 24 The steps of a person are ordained by the Lord—so how can anyone understand his own way?
Date: 6th-3rd Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... It is well known that sapiential sayings influenced the legal codes of the Hebrew Bible. In addition, it has already been demonstrated that the legal codes of the ancient Near East and their style have influenced both the content and the style of sapiential aphorisms ... (Compare Proverbs 20:22; 24:29) The relationship between the two proverbs is reflected on three distinct levels. First, both proverbs belong to the literary category of instructions. Evidence that the two proverbs belong to this category includes both their identical opening formulas, “Do not say,” and their common subjects: one should not repay evil but let God punish the wicked. The expression “I will do to him as he did to me” is a fixed formula in Hebrew Scripture with respect to recompense ... even though it might be inferred from Proverbs 3:30 that it countenances quarreling with someone for a good reason—namely, that the other individual did harm—the proverb refers only to a verbal argument and nothing further. (Note Leviticus 19:18) The prohibition against repaying with evil a person who has done you harm is not unique to Hebrew Scripture. It is also found in other literatures of the ancient Near East ..."
Yona, Shamir
"The Influence of Legal Style on the Style of Aphorism: The Origin of the Retribution Formula and the Clause lo yinnaqeh 'He Will Not Go Unpunished' in the Book of Proverbs" in Cohen, Chaim, and Shalom M. Paul (eds.) Birkat Shalom: Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Postbiblical Judaism Presented to Shalom M. Paul on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday
(pp. 413-423) Eisenbrauns, 2008
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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