Proverbs 14:14

The backslider ¹  will be paid back ²  from his own ways, but a good person will be rewarded ³  for his.

The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good man rewarded for his.

The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied with his.

Backsliders get what they deserve; good people receive their reward.

A mean person gets paid back in meanness, a gracious person in grace.

He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the reward of his doings.

The perverse get what their ways deserve, and the good, what their deeds deserve.

The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above.

The backslider ¹  will be paid back ²  from his own ways, but a good person will be rewarded ³  for his.

¹ tn Heb “a turning away of heart.” The genitive לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a backslidden heart.” The term סוּג (sug) means “to move away; to move backwards; to depart; to backslide” (BDB 690 s.v. I סוּג). This individual is the one who backslides, that is, who departs from the path of righteousness.

² tn Heb “will be filled”; cf. KJV, ASV. The verb (“to be filled, to be satisfied”) here means “to be repaid,” that is, to partake in his own evil ways. His faithlessness will come back to haunt him.

³ tn The phrase “will be rewarded” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.