“The merciful man does good to his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.”

Reading this verse in context

This page shows one verse on its own, which is rarely how it was written. Proverbs 11 contains 31 verses, and the sentences either side usually decide what this one means. Read the whole chapter before you quote it.

Text: World English Bible, Protestant edition (engwebp), eBible.org — public domain.