17 The merciful man does [f]himself good,
But the cruel man [g]does himself harm.
18 The wicked earns deceptive wages,
But he who sows righteousness gets a true reward.
19 He who is steadfast in righteousness will attain to life,
And he who pursues evil will bring about his own death.
20 The perverse in heart are an abomination to the Lord,
But the blameless in their [h]walk are His delight.
21 [i]Assuredly, the evil man will not go unpunished,
But the [j]descendants of the righteous will be delivered.
22 As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout
So is a beautiful woman who lacks [k]discretion.
23 The desire of the righteous is only good,
But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
24 There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more,
And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.
Despite what we would think, Solomon sets us straight. If we do something wrong, we not only hurt others, but we harm ourselves. Over and over we see that here, so if we cheat someone, we get hurt, if we lie, we lose out, if we steal, it’ll come back on our own heads. There’s no escaping how God setup the world. He’s effectively rigged it so that doing good benefits us and doing bad harms us.
On the flipside of evil though, there’s one especially weird thing that God has built into the fabric of our world that carries across every culture. This isn’t just a perk of capitalism, but when we give, somehow we still come out ahead. As Solomon states, “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more…”
If we hold back, certainly someone else misses out, but so do we. Learn to give and you won’t regret it. Be generous, with whatever you have, and see God shape your heart to be more like his. He’s the biggest giver of all, and there’s no way you can out-give Him.