At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: And a good man shall be satisfied from himself” (Proverbs 14:14, KJV).
“The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above” (Proverbs 14:14, NKJV).
“The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways” (Proverbs 14:14, ESV).
The backslider here is someone who turns back, who is disloyal, or treacherous. It is not simply referring to a bad man, bad from the get go. This is a man who was once walking on the right path, but who deserted the way Demas did, in love with the world. When someone turns away like this, they do it for the sake of something. Presumably they are gratified when they get it, at least initially.
I started from three different translations of this proverb because the KJV is ambiguous. The backslider in heart is content with whatever it is that he is pursuing, which makes sense, but what does the KJV mean by saying that the good man will be satisfied “from himself”? Both the good man and bad man are satisfied, but with what? And how?
The NKJV says that the backslider is filled up with his own ways, but the good man is satisfied from above. This would seem to indicate the backslider is filled with earthly things while the good man is sustained by heavenly things. That sounds pretty pious, and it is certainly true, but the question is whether this is too much of an interpretive reach by the translator.
The ESV appears to take it as an expression of the truth that a man reaps what he sows. The treacherous man plants crabbed apples and is satisfied with crabbed apples. The good man plants a healthy apple tree and enjoys the fruit of what he has planted. This seems to be the most straightforward reading, and it fills out what the KJV was getting at.
God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. This is a truth we are taught in both testaments.
