Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.” Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you.
⛓ Read Proverbs 20 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion4
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Don't say, I will repay evil' in Proverbs is the closest sapiential parallel to Paul's 'no one returns evil for evil' (5:15), commending waiting on the Lord rather than retaliating.
High confidence'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD and he will save you' is the wisdom source for 'Repay no one evil for evil' (12:17) joined to leaving wrath to God (12:19) — the Proverb already links non-retaliation with reliance on divine vindication.
High confidence'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD' coheres tightly with Paul's 'Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?' (v.7), counseling the renunciation of self-vindication. The wisdom ethic of leaving redress to God, paired with the righteous-sufferer posture, gives medium volume coherence.
Medium confidence'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD and he will deliver you' directly grounds the non-retaliation command of 3:9 ('not rendering evil for evil... but instead blessing'), entrusting vindication to God rather than self.
Medium confidenceEcho2
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD' — wisdom renunciation of retaliation behind 'do not resist the evildoer.'
Medium confidence'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD' — leaving recompense to God, the disposition behind 'judge not, that you be not judged.'
Low confidence