Whoever is pregnant with evil
    conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
    falls into the pit they have made.
16 The trouble they cause recoils on them;
    their violence comes down on their own heads.

17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;
    I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High. NIVUK

v21f. reads, in the Jerusalem Bible: ”The enemy may sharpen his sword…but the weapons he prepares will kill himself” (see Mt.26:32).

This principle is repeated in various parts of the Bible. It is that we will reap as we sow. It can, of course, have positive as well as negative connotations (see, e.g. 2 Cor.9:6/Gal.6:7-10). But as we find it in the Old Testament, it is usually reinforcing the message of verses 14-16 (see e.g. Nu.32:23, Ps.9:15; Prov.26:27).

‘This is the way sin works…it has a boomerang quality as if it were a living agent in its own right. But if sin appears to return on the head of the perpetrator it is because there is a just (6-8a), wrathful (10-13) God before whom all will one day stand, but who is the same every day with resources at the ready for the punishment of the unrepentant.’ Alec Motyer.

The principle of ‘evil coming home to roost…operates unevenly in the material realm, but inescapably in that of the spirit…’ Derek Kidner.

PRAYER: Lord please help me today, in the choices I face, to be sowing to the Spirit and not to the flesh.