If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this”; doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
⛓ Read Proverbs 24 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.
Quotation2
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
Parallel near-verbatim source for 'render to everyone according to his deeds': 'will he not repay each according to his work?' Matthew's wording fuses the Psalms and Proverbs recompense formula. Together with Psalm 62:12 this is a high-confidence citation.
High confidence2:6 equally cites Prov 24:12, 'will he not repay each according to his deeds?' — joint source with Ps 62:12; Prov adds the 'God who weighs the heart / does he not know?' frame that suits Paul's argument about secret motives (cf. 2:16).
High confidenceAllusion3
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Proverbs asks whether God who weighs the heart will not 'render to every man according to his works,' the same recompense formula Paul invokes against Alexander the coppersmith. The wisdom maxim of divine repayment by deeds underwrites Paul's restraint.
High confidence'Will he not repay each according to his work?' Direct source for 'to repay to each man according to his work.' Strong verbal correspondence (kata ta erga). LXX agrees.
High confidence"He who does wrong will receive again for the wrong he has done" tracks the wisdom maxim that God repays each according to his deeds. Medium coherence; the recompense formula (rendering to a man according to his work) is the OT principle behind both the servant's reward (v.24) and the wrongdoer's payback.
Medium confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
'Will he not repay everyone according to their deeds?'—God who weighs the heart renders to each by works, matching the judgment-seat recompense. The proverb's emphasis that God sees and requites secret action coheres with Paul's 'revealed before the judgment seat.' Part of a recurrent OT recompense cluster behind 5:10.
Medium confidence