1 Samuel 24:17-19

24:17 He said to David, “You are more innocent ¹  than I, for you have treated me well, even though I have tried to harm you! 24:18 You have explained today how you have treated me well. The Lord delivered me into your hand, but you did not kill me. 24:19 Now if a man finds his enemy, does he send him on his way in good shape? May the Lord repay you with good this day for what you have done to me.

Psalms 35:12

35:12 They repay me evil for the good I have done; ² 

I am overwhelmed with sorrow. ³ 

Psalms 38:20

38:20 They repay me evil for the good I have done;

though I have tried to do good to them, they hurl accusations at me. ⁴ 

Psalms 109:4-5

109:4 They repay my love with accusations, ⁵ 

but I continue to pray. ⁶ 

109:5 They repay me evil for good, ⁷ 

and hate for love.

Proverbs 17:13

17:13 As for the one who repays ⁸  evil for good,

evil will not leave ⁹  his house. ¹⁰ 

John 10:32

10:32 Jesus said to them, ¹¹  “I have shown you many good deeds ¹²  from the Father. For which one of them are you going to stone me?”

John 15:25

15:25 Now this happened ¹³  to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’ ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Or “righteous” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “you are in the right”; NLT “are a better man than I am.”

² tn Heb “they repay me evil instead of good.”

³ tn Heb “[there is] bereavement to my soul.”

⁴ tn Heb “the ones who repay evil instead of good accuse me, instead of my pursuing good.”

⁵ tn Heb “in place of my love they oppose me.”

⁶ tn Heb “and I, prayer.”

⁷ tn Heb “and they set upon me evil in place of good.”

⁸ 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).

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ tn Grk “Jesus answered them.”

¹² tn Or “good works.”

¹³ tn The words “this happened” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to complete an ellipsis.

¹⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 35:19 and Ps 69:4. As a technical term law (νόμος, nomos) is usually restricted to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT), but here it must have a broader reference, since the quotation is from Ps 35:19 or Ps 69:4. The latter is the more likely source for the quoted words, since it is cited elsewhere in John’s Gospel (2:17 and 19:29, in both instances in contexts associated with Jesus’ suffering and death).