He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity; shall gain nothing substantial, shall have nothing to show for his pains. But aven also means "calamity," "trouble," as Proverbs 12:21; so the gnome expresses the truth that they who do evil shall meet with punishment in their very sins—the exact contrast to the promise to the righteous (Proverbs 11:18).
"To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward." Thus we have in Job 4:8, "They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same;" and the apostle asserts (Galatians 6:7, etc), "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Eastern proverbs run, "As the sin, so the atonement:" "Those who sow thorns can only reap prickles" (comp.
Proverbs 12:14). And the rod of his anger shall fail. The writer is thinking especially of cruelty and injustice practised on a neighbour, as Delitzsch has pointed out, and he means that the rod which he has raised, the violence intended against the innocent victim, shall vanish away or fall harmlessly.
Ewald and others think that the rod is the Divine anger, and translate the verb (kalah) "is prepared," a sense which here it will not well bear, though the LXX. has lent some countenance to it by rendering, "And shall fully accomplish the plague ( πληγὴν,?
'punishment') of his deeds." The rendering, "shall fail." "shall be consumed, or annihilated," is confirmed by Genesis 21:15; Isaiah 1:28; Isaiah 16:4, etc. The Septuagint adds a distich here, of which the first member is a variant of Isaiah 16:9.
and the second another rendering of the latter hemistich of the present verse: "A cheerful man and a giver God blesseth ( ἄνδρα ἱλαρὸν καὶ δότην εὐλογεῖ ὁ θεός): but he shall bring to an end ( συντελεσεῖ) the vanity of his works."
The first hemistich is remarkable for being quoted by St. Paul (2 Corinthians 9:7), with a slight variation, ἱλαρὸν γὰρ δότην ἀγαπᾷ ὁ θεός. So Ecclesiasticus 32:9 (35), "In all thy gifts show a cheerful countenance ( ἱλάρωσον τὸ πρόσθπόν σου)."