whoever digs a pit will fall into it

The now commonly-used German proverb wer (anderen) eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein, meaning any evil planned for others will come back to oneself was first coined in 1534 in the German Bible translation by Martin Luther. (Source: Zetzsche)

Other languages where this also has become a proverb which is based on Bible translations as well include Dutch (Wie een kuil graaft voor een ander… valt er zelf in, Danish (den, der graver en grav for andre, falder tit selv i den), Norwegian (Den som graver en grav, faller selv i den), French (Qui creuse un piège pour autrui y tombe), Spanish (El que cava una fosa para su prójimo, caerá en ella), Italian (Chi scava la fossa agli altri, ci cade dentro), or Latin (Qui fodit foveam alteri, incidet in eam).

Translation commentary on Sirach 27:17

Love your friend and keep faith with him: The Greek word rendered Love does not exactly mean “love” or “respect” (Good News Translation); it is both. A better rendering for this line is “Respect the trust your friends put in you; be loyal to them.”

But if you betray his secrets, do not run after him: Do not run after him means “do not try to repair the broken friendship.” Good News Translation‘s wording “you may as well forget you have a friend” is not literal at all, but it is what the Greek means. However, a better rendering is “you may as well forget that you ever had a friend.” Another possible approach is “it is useless to try to regain his good will” or “… to try to get him to like [or, respect] you again.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.