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Proverbs 25:21–22
Even good things like honey require limits, and neighbors need relational space. The section then reaches one of Proverbs’ most striking ethical commands: feed an enemy who is hungry and give drink to an enemy who thirsts, leaving the moral outcome to the LORD rather than answering hostility with hostility.
Torah and wisdom already command concrete good toward enemies. Jesus universalizes and deepens the ethic into active love and prayer for persecutors.
Romans 12:20 directly quotes Proverbs 25:21–22: if an enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink.
Elisha’s command to feed captured Aramean enemies instead of killing them belongs to the same biblical mercy principle later stated in Proverbs 25 and quoted in Romans 12. The relationship is thematic/canonical: Kings dramatizes mercy toward enemies, Proverbs formulates the ethic, and Paul carries that principle into Christian practice.
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