If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,And the LORD will reward you.
Proverbs 25:21–22 · NKJVPart of Feed Your Enemy, Proverbs 25:21–22.
Quick answer
The reason is an image nobody agrees about, coals of fire on his head, followed by a promise the reader can rely on: the LORD will reward you.
Read the whole unit
Read the whole unit
The first verse is the plainest thing in the chapter and the hardest. Two needs, bread and water, both basic, both immediate, and the man in front of you is called שֹׂנַאֲךָ, the one who hates you, right there in the sentence so you cannot forget who is being fed. Nothing is said about reconciliation. The enemy is still the enemy when the meal is handed over.
The second verse is where the discussion goes. The coals image has been read as shame that leads to repentance, as a ritual of carrying live coals for a household fire, and as judgment stored up, and this expression is genuinely debated. What can be said with confidence is what the verse does not do: it does not offer the kindness as a tactic whose payoff is your enemy's suffering, because the final clause moves the reward entirely to the LORD and away from any effect on him. Paul quotes the pair verbatim in Romans 12:20, and he places it inside an argument that begins "do not avenge yourselves" and ends "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good," which settles the direction even if it does not settle the image.
From this side of the cross
The saying asks the reader to treat an enemy the way he has himself been treated, which is what Paul is doing with it in Romans. Feeding someone who has not stopped opposing you is not a strategy for changing him. It is what people do when the account has already been settled somewhere else.
What this verse contributes
the debated image, and the reassignment of the outcome to God.
The other half
Feed him. The saying does not ask whether he deserves it, whether he has changed, or whether he is still your enemy, and the omission is the instruction.
Related: Romans 12:15 · Romans 12:20 · Proverbs 24:17–18 · Proverbs 20:22
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.