One of the most commonly misused verses in the book, usually as a formula for getting.
Quick answer
God treats kindness to a poor person as a loan made to Himself. The verse is about how seriously He takes it, not about a return on investment.
Read both lines
The metaphor is startling and deliberately so. A gift to a poor man is, on the face of it, unrecoverable, which is precisely what makes it a gift; the verse says it goes on a ledger anyway, and names the borrower. The Hebrew verb in the first line is not simply give but be gracious to, so the posture matters as much as the transfer. The second line then says the LORD repays. What the verse establishes is the identification: God has attached Himself to the poor closely enough that generosity toward them is credited to Him. The book made the same identification at 14:31, where oppressing the poor reproaches his Maker.
What it does not mean
This is not a mechanism, and it is not a strategy. The verse says nothing about when, how, or in what currency God repays, and every version of "give to get" has to add those details itself before it can promise anything. Read as an investment, it turns the poor into instruments, which reverses the whole point of a sentence about mercy. Read as a guarantee of money returned, it collapses the first time a generous person stays poor, and generous people often do. What is actually promised is that the account is kept by God, which is both less useful for fundraising and far more comforting to someone who gave when it cost them.
From this side of the cross
Jesus makes the same identification and pushes it further: "inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me" (Matthew 25:40). The proverb is not secretly about Him, and it did not need Him to be true. But the resonance is unmistakable, and the New Testament adds the motive the proverb left open, since Paul says God loves a cheerful giver rather than one giving of necessity (2 Corinthians 9:7). Giving stops being a loan when you are already an heir.
Related: Proverbs 14:31 · Proverbs 13:23 · Proverbs 22:9 · Matthew 25:40 · 2 Corinthians 9:7
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.