Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 24:29 · World English Bible

Proverbs 24:29 Meaning Don’t Say

Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.”

Read it in the app

What does Proverbs 24:29 mean?

The ego demands balance, insisting that a wrong received be answered by a wrong returned. Yet the wish to repay is only the wish to keep the injury real, so that guilt has somewhere to live and the debt stays on the books.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 24:29 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The ego demands balance, insisting that a wrong received be answered by a wrong returned. Yet the wish to repay is only the wish to keep the injury real, so that guilt has somewhere to live and the debt stays on the books. Nothing was truly taken from a mind that fear cannot diminish.

When love becomes the teacher, the other is no longer a debtor but a brother who was mistaken, and the account closes not by payment but by seeing there was never anything owed. That release is the only justice the mind was ever asking for.

The man: the brother the mind would cast as a debtor, the one it is tempted to see as owing rather than as innocent.

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 24:29 today

  1. Delete the reply you drafted to even the score. Let the last word belong to someone else and feel how little you lose.
  2. When someone was short with you, give them one more chance at an ordinary tone instead of matching their edge. People are often fighting something you cannot see.
  3. When a colleague cuts you out or takes a credit, resist the move that squares it up. Do the next piece of work well and let that be the whole of your answer.

What debt am I keeping on the books, and what would it cost me to close it?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching 63

Meet injury with kindness rather than a matching blow. The one who refuses to return harm has stepped out of the exchange entirely.

Buddhism · Dhammapada

Hatred has never once ended through hatred. It ends when someone stops, and the stopping is the whole of it.

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

The best revenge is not to be like the one who wronged you. Keep your own character intact and nothing was actually taken.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Proverbs 24 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store