And Jahveh shall reward thee.
A similar mean and vindictive spirit is shown in xxiv. 18, following a magnanimous proverb; but in verse 29, probably more ancient than 18, we find the unqualified rebuke of retaliation:
Say not “As he hath done to me, so will I do to him,
I will render to the man according to his work.”
It was this generosity that Buddha exercised,[7] and Jesus; and it was left to Paul to recover the Jahvist modifications of Solomon’s wisdom in order to adulterate for hard Romans the humane spirit of Jesus (Romans xii. 19, 20). The Solomonic sentences are normally so magnanimous as to throw suspicion on any clause tainted with smallness or vulgarity. The pervading spirit is, “The benevolent heart shall be enriched, and he who watereth shall himself be watered.”
There is one proverb (xiv. 32) which suggests a belief in immortality, or possibly in the Angel of Death:
By his evil deeds the evil man is thrust downward,
But the virtuous man hath confidence in his death.
According to the Avesta every man is born with an invisible noose around his neck. When a good man dies the noose falls, and he passes to a beautiful region where he is met by a maid, to whom he says, “Who art thou, who art the fairest I have ever seen?” She answers, “O thou of good thoughts, good words, good deeds, I am thy actions.” The evil man meets a leprous hag, embodiment of his actions, who by his noose drags him down through the evil-thought hell, the evil-word hell, the evil-deed hell, to the region of “Endless Darkness” (Yast xxii.). This darkness may be metaphorically spoken of in Proverbs xx. 20:
He that curseth his father and mother,