1 Samuel 25:21

25:21 Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

Amsal 17:13

17:13 As for the one who repays ²  evil for good,

evil will not leave ³  his house. ⁴ 

[25:21]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[17:13]  ² tn The sentence begins with the participle מֵשִׁיב (meshiv, “the one who repays”). The whole first colon may be taken as an independent nominative absolute, with the formal sentence to follow. Some English versions have made the first colon a condition by supplying “if” (NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT).

[17:13]  ³ tn The verb מוּשׁ (mush) means “to depart; to remove.” The Kethib is a Hiphil, which would yield a meaning of “to take away”; so the Qere, which is the Qal, makes more sense in the line.

[17:13]  ⁴ sn The proverb does not explain whether God will turn evil back on him directly or whether people will begin to treat him as he treated others.