Proverbs 25:21-22: If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
Does not seem very friendly to heap coals of fire upon someone. What gives Chaps?
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Is there anything more humiliating than having to accept help, or receiving unmerited kindness, from someone you have wronged? This Is what the Preacher means: there is no more effective way to confound an enemy!
I love Proverbs! It seems to me it’s just about the only place in the entire Bible where you get advice about quotidian life. (Well, except the semi-pornographic Song of Songs…)
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Blessed Sunday, All!
H, you got here before me; .I agree 110%! (Possibly just a tiny bit passive-aggressive on the part of our friend the Preacher, though.)
Recalling an anecdote of Gen. Mattis’s: in Iraq: while at fixed bayonets in 115-degree heat on a Friday, facing an angry mob, the General’s “Fr.-Chaps” gathered Marines and directed them to hand out water to the crowd. As he said: “How do you fight someone who hands you water?” There’s that verse in action…As to ‘pornography’ in the Song of Songs, try some St. John of the Cross…
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For instance:
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The best explanation I have heard is that the context here is before gas stoves when everyone cooked with fire. If your home-fire went out you might go to a neighbor to ask for a red hot coal instead of doing whatever the fire starters used to do. In this case instead of giving the ‘enemy’ a coal or two you give them so many and with so much weight that they have to carry it in some sort of bucket on their head. In other words, you are not trying to burn them with red hot coals but are helping them as much as possible and more than anyone would have the right to expect.
I first heard this explanation at a Christian men’s retreat and must admit that it was the first time that that particular Proverb made any real sense to me.
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Always good to have the actual historical context at hand first, so that the more spiritual treatment that comes our way a couple of millennia later connects well; this is one I hadn’t heard about: Muchisimas! for adding to my knowledge, hermano. (Isn’t that account from Gen. Mattis’s book awesome, too?)
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Translations can sometimes lead one in the direction the translator may have in mind. So that sort of cultural savvy can help out a lot…
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I always have fun and get smarter when you post these, ST…Thanks so much! Hoping everyone feels well prayed-up for the week ahead, too.
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I’d better get some sleep, so: Buenos y Buenas. Entonces, and Chao for now…!La paz sea contigo!
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