complete verse (Romans 12:17)

Following are a number of back-translations of Romans 12:17:

  • Uma: “If there are those who persecute us, don’t pay them back. Do what is good in the sight of all people.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If someone does evil/bad to you don’t repay (him) with evil/bad. Do everything which is good in the sight of all people.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “If someone harms you, do not revenge. You just continue doing those actions that nobody can rebuke you for.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “If someone does evil to you, don’t take-revenge, but rather try to do what is good and right in the estimation of all people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Don’t repay the evil which is done to you. Earnestly endeavor that concerning what is good, that is what you will do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Romans 12:17

Do not pay him back with evil may be rendered as “do not do evil to him in return” or “do not be bad to him as he has been bad to you.”

The second part of this verse, try to do what all men consider to be good, comes from the Septuagint of Proverbs 3.4.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Romans 12:17

Paragraph 12:17–21

12:17a

Do not repay anyone evil for evil: This clause indicates that the believer should not do something evil to someone because that person did something evil to him. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

Never pay back evil with evil (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
Don’t pay people back with evil for the evil they do to you (God’s Word)

evil: The Greek word here it refers to harm that someone has done to you. Here are other ways to translate this word:

do wrong/harm
-or-
mistreat (Contemporary English Version)

It is different from the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as “evil” at 12:9b. But some languages will translate it with the same word as there.

12:17b

consider: The Greek word refers to thinking ahead about what you are going to do. Here are other ways to translate this Greek word:

give thought to (English Standard Version)
-or-
plan ahead to do

right: The Greek word here refers to what is beautiful or good. Here it refers to what is morally good. Here are other ways to translate this word:

noble (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
good (NET Bible)

in the eyes of everybody: Here the word everybody refers to all people, believers and non-believers. For example:

before all people (NET Bible)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.