A 23. The desire of righteous ones (is) only good,
B And the expectation of wicked ones (is) wrath.
C 24. There is one who disperses and still increases,
D And one who withholds more than is upright, surely to poverty.
C 25. A soul of blessing will be made fat,
C’ And one who gives drink, he also will receive water.
D’ 26. One who keeps back grain, the people will curse him,
C’ And blessing will be on the head of who sells it.
A’ 27. One who earnestly looks for good will seek acceptance,
B’ And one who searches for evil, it will come to him.
The AB parts (vv. 23 and 27) correspond in describing judgment. The C and D pairings (vv. 24 and 26) are antithetical parallelisms contrasting the generous and the selfish, but they tighten the chiastic structure by reversing the order of their lines from CD to DC. The CC part in the middle of the paragraph (v. 25) is a synonymous parallelism about the righteous.
We begin with the C and D pairings. There is a man who disperses his wealth. He’s generous to those around him and cares for the needy as he has opportunity. God blesses him and increases his wealth. There is another man who withholds more for himself than what is good. He is selfish and unwilling to acknowledge any obligation to the poor. He thinks that in that way he will increase his riches, but God curses him and reduces him to poverty.
There is another man who not only will not give from his grain but refuses even to sell it because he wants it for himself or thinks he can get a better price for it elsewhere or at another time. The people who need his grain curse him. His opposite is one who sees that his neighbors have a need which he can satisfy by accepting a lower price or giving up some other advantage to himself. He sells it, and the people bless him.
In between these two verses is the heart of the chiasm, and it is only about the generous soul. The Hebrew has “soul of blessing.” This does not mean the soul that is blessed but the soul that blesses. It is a synonym for the one who disperses and who sells his grain for the need of his neighbors. He blesses them with his generosity. He gives and, just as in the preceding verse, increases because of the blessing of God.
The verse also describes him as one who gives water to the thirsty. God recompenses him by giving him water for himself.
The translations differ about the meaning of verse 23a, the first line of the paragraph. The RSV, ESV and NIV all translate, “The desire of the righteous ends only in good,” and make the line directly antithetical to the second line of the verse. The Hebrew has no verb, so the translation is a matter of interpretation: what verb is understood? Because of the word desire, and because most frequently the verb to be is the one that we must understand in such cases, it is better to translate as the NKJV, KJV, ASV and NASB: “The desire of the righteous is only good.”
The righteous man desires good. In fact, he desires a particular good, that good that is in God and in his favor. He therefore patterns his behavior in the matter of loving his neighbor to what he knows God judges to be good. It may seem to be, it may even be in the short term, to his disadvantage, but he knows that God alone is good and alone capable of defining good for him. He seeks it earnestly (v. 27) and finds favor or acceptance with God. God approves of his work and blesses him.
In verses 23b and 27b Solomon describes the wicked. They seek a temporary good for themselves and make it the goal of their lives. They have their portion in this life (Ps. 17:14). Their expectation is wrath. This does not necessarily mean that they are consciously expecting wrath; they may blind their eyes and suppress the knowledge of judgment. Nevertheless, wrath will be their end, and they can have no other expectation if they will only be truthful with themselves. They seek evil (v. 27) and it comes to them. They seek morally evil works, and evil (in the sense of trouble) comes.
It is important to remember that what Solomon describes in these verses is not always what we see in the world. Sometimes the wicked and selfish prosper and the righteous and generous suffer poverty and affliction. Many saints have complained of this imbalance or apparent inconsistency in the judgment of God: Job, Asaph (Ps. 73) and Jeremiah (Jer. 12:1–2) are examples. Solomon takes the long view here; all will be set right in the final judgment. There God will recompense the righteous both for their suffering and their good works, and the way of the wicked will perish. This reward is not of merit but of grace.
Generosity is a virtue which the Scriptures urge us to nurture in ourselves and our children. Perhaps there is no other passage in Scripture that teaches it as clearly as 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. The Macedonian Christians gave beyond their means for their fellow saints in Jerusalem. They did it cheerfully and after first giving themselves to the Lord. This was an imitating of Christ who “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich (v.9).” In such generosity is great blessing: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully (9:6).”