Proverbs 22:8
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
He that soweth iniquity {u} shall reap vanity,.... He that practises sin, and is frequent in the commission of it; indulges to it in a profuse way, as the sower plentifully scatters his seed; such shall reaper possess nothing but sin and wickedness; for, what a man sows, that shall he reap; he shall eat the fruit of his doings, and have the reward of his works; see Job 4:8; or "nothing" {w}, mere emptiness; it shall not answer; he shall have in the end neither pleasure nor profit, but the contrary; "shall reap evil things", as the Septuagint, Arabic, and Vulgate Latin versions render it;
and the rod of his anger shall fail; with which he has ruled and smitten others in an angry and cruel manner; this shall be taken from him; his authority shall fail, and he shall become subject to others, and be used in like manner; see Isaiah 14:4. R. Joseph Kimchi interprets it of "the rod of the increase" of the earth, or the rod or flail with which the fruits of the earth are threshed or beaten out, which should fail before they were reaped; and Schultens {x} has reference to the same, and gives the sense, that a wicked man that sows iniquity, when he thinks his harvest is ripe, shall be beaten with the flail, by which he shall be consumed; and he that threshed others shall be threshed himself.
{u} So, "serere fallaciam", in Plauti Poenulo, l. 1. v. 67.
{w} Nwa "inanitatem ac nihilum", Michaelis.
{x} "Et virga in eum desaevitura, erit decretoria".