If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.
Parallel Translations
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If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.
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If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
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If they say: 'Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us lurk for the innocent without cause;
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Proverbs 1:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 1:18 but these lay in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.
- Proverbs 12:6 The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
- Jeremiah 5:26 For wicked men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.
- Jeremiah 18:18-20 Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let’s strike him with the tongue, and let’s not give heed to any of his words.” Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me. Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
- Acts 25:3 asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem; plotting to kill him on the way.
- Psalms 10:8-10 He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless. He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net. The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength.
- Psalms 17:12 He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
- Psalms 35:7 For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.
- Psalms 56:6 They conspire and lurk, watching my steps. They are eager to take my life.
- Psalms 64:5-6 They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?” They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!” Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning.
- Proverbs 1:16 for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.
- Proverbs 30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.
- Jeremiah 11:19 But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.”
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.
- Matthew 26:3-4 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas. They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit, and kill him.
- John 15:25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
- Acts 23:15 Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case more exactly. We are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He speaketh not only of the shedding of blood…
He speaketh not only of the shedding of blood with hand, but of all crafty practices which tend to the detriment of our neighbor.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 1:11 If they say, Come with us, let…
Pro 1:11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
Ver. 11. If they say.] The dragon bites the elephant’s ear, and thence sucks his blood; because he knows that to be the only place that he cannot reach with his trunk to defend. So deal the red dragon and his angels: "with good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple" {Rom 16:18} "With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him." {Pro 7:21}
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Come with me.] If sinners have their "Come," should not saints much more? "Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord." {Isa 2:3} "Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord." {Isa 2:5} "Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will go also." {Zec 8:21} Should we not incite, entice, whet, and "provoke {a} one another," {Heb 10:24} "sharpen" and extimulate, {Pro 27:17} rouse and "stir up" {b} each other to love and good works? {2Pe 1:13}
{a} παροξυνειν.
{b} διεγειρειν.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Come with us; we are numerous, and strong, and…
Come with us; we are numerous, and strong, and sociable.
Let us lay wait for blood; to shed blood. He expresseth not their words, which would rather affright than inveigle a young novice; but the true nature and consequence of the action, and what lies at the bottom of their specious pretences.
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Lurk privily; so we shall neither be prevented before, nor discovered and punished afterward.
The innocent; harmless travellers, who are more careless and secure, and unprovided for opposition, than such villains as themselves.
Without cause; though they have not provoked us, nor deserved this usage from us. This Solomon adds to discover their malignity and baseness, and so deter the young man from association with them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain If they say, come with us,.... Leave your father's…
If they say, come with us,.... Leave your father's house, and the business of life in which you are; make one of us, and become a member of our society, and go along with us upon the highway;
let us lay wait for blood; lie in ambush under some hedge or another, waiting till a rich traveller comes up and passes that way, and then rise and shed his blood in order to get his money; and the same word signifies both "blood" and "money", and wait is laid for one for the sake of the other;
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let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; or "let us hide" (q), the Vulgate Latin version adds "snares"; so Vatablus and others, as the fowler does for birds; or "let us hide ourselves" (r); in some private place, waiting "for the innocent", the harmless traveller, who has done no injury to any man's person or property; thinks himself safe, and is not aware of any design upon him; going about his lawful business, and having done nothing to provoke such miscreants to attempt his life or take away his property: and which they do "without cause" as to him; "freely" (s) as to themselves; and "with impunity" (t), as they promise themselves and one another; all which senses the word used will bear.
(q) "abscondamus", Michaelis. (r) "Abscondamus nos", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "abscondamus nosmetipsos", Baynus. (s) "gratis", Pagninus, Montanus, Michaelis, Schultens. (t) "Impune", Junius & Tremellius, Amama.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. If they say, Come with us] From…
Verse 11. If they say, Come with us] From all accounts, this is precisely the way in which the workers of iniquity form their partisans, and constitute their marauding societies to the present day.
Let us lay wait for blood] Let us rob and murder.
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Let us lurk privily] Let us lie in ambush for our prey.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The temptation against which the teacher seeks to guard…
The temptation against which the teacher seeks to guard his disciple is that of joining a band of highway robbers. The “vain men” who gathered around Jephthah Jdg 11:3, the lawless or discontented who came to David in Adullam 1Sa 22:2, the bands of robbers who infested every part of the country in the period of the New Testament, and against whom every Roman governor had to wage incessant war, show how deeply rooted the evil was in Palestine. Compare the Psa 10:7, note; Psa 10:10 note.
Without cause - Better, in vain; most modern commentators join the words with “innocent,” and interpret them after Job 1:9. The evil-doers deride their victims as being righteous “in vain.” They get nothing by it. It does them no good.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Murder and robbery are given as specific illustrations.
Murder and robbery are given as specific illustrations.
lay wait . . . lurk privily--express an effort and hope for successful concealment.
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swallow . . . grave--utterly destroy the victim and traces of the crime (Num 16:33; Psa 55:15). Abundant rewards of villainy are promised as the fruits of this easy and safe course.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 11. If they say — The teacher here enlarges…
11. If they say — The teacher here enlarges upon the subject of evil associations. He seems to have in his mind a marauding party, a band of plunderers and freebooters, who hesitate not to commit murder if needful to obtain booty. We are probably not to understand him as intending to quote the exact language of such cutthroats to a novice, but rather to present vividly to the mind of his pupil what is the real character of their operations, under whatever specious pretext they may be covered, such as patriotism, lawful war, opposition to unjust authority, punishment of public enemies, etc. Palestine has been from time immemorial infested with robbers and raiders — Bedawin Arabs and others imitating their mode of life. His pupil must avoid the seductions which this nefarious kind of guerrilla warfare presented in consequence of the great wealth often suddenly acquired in it.
Without cause — Without reason or justifiable cause, such as is supposed to exist when life is taken or property seized in regular warfare, or by legitimate authority — “Him who in vain is innocent.” — Miller. Compare Jdg_11:3; 1Sa_22:2.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11. for blood] The shameless form of the proposal…
11. for blood] The shameless form of the proposal shows at once the insecurity and the low moral tone of society. The language is too strong and vivid to admit of a figurative interpretation: Let us rob them violently of their bread which is their life. Compare
“The bread of the needy is the life of the poor:
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He that depriveth him thereof is a man of blood.”
Sir_34:21.
without cause] So A.V. and R.V., i.e. though (the reflection being that of the author, not of the speaker) he has done them no harm, given them no cause to injure him. So LXX. ἀδίκως. Others, less probably, take the adverb with the word “innocent”: for them who are innocent in vain (who serve God for nought, Job_1:9, where the Heb. word is the same as here), because, as we will soon shew, his innocency will profit him nothing. “Contra insontem frustra,” Vulg. “Pio nullum pietatis præmium habituro,” Maur.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) Without cause.—To be taken with “lurk.” Though he…
(11) Without cause.—To be taken with “lurk.” Though he has done us no harm.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain If they say, Come with us, let us lay…
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood. The teacher here puts into the mouth of the sinners, for the sake of vivid representation, the first inducement with which they seek to allure youth from the paths of rectitude, viz. privacy and concealment (Cartwright, Wardlaw). Both the verbs bra (arav) and px, (tzaphan) mean "to lay in wait" (Zockler). The radical meaning of arav, from which hbran (neervah), "let us lay in wait" (Authorized Version) is taken, is "to knot, to weave, to intertwine." Verbs of this class are often applied to snares and craftiness (cf. the Greek dolon udainein , and the Latin insidias nectere, "to weave plots, or lay snares"). Generally, arav is equivalent to "to watch in ambush" (Gesenius); cf. the Vulgate, insidiemur sanguini; i.e. "let us lay wait for blood." The LXX paraphrases the expression, koinwnhson aimatov , i.e. "let us share in blood." On the other hand, px (tzaphan), from which hnpxni (nitz"p"nah), translated in the Authorized Version, "let us lurk privily," is "to hide or conceal," and intrans. "to hide one"s self," or ellipt., "to hide nets, snares" (Gesenius, Holden). This sense agrees with the Vulgate abscondamus tendiculas; i.e. "let us conceal snares." Delitzsch, however, holds that no word is to be understood with this verb, and traces the radical meaning to that of restraining one"s self, watching, lurking. in the sense of speculari, "to watch for," insidiari, "to lay wait for." The two verbs combine what may be termed the apparatus, the arrangement of the plot and their lurking in ambush, by which they will await their victims. For blood ( l"dam). The context (see vers. 12 and 16), bearing as it does upon bloodshed accompanying robbery, requires that the Hebrew (l"dam) should be understood here, as Fleischer remarks, either elliptically, for "the blood of men," as the Jewish interpreters explain, or synedochically, for the person, with especial reference to his blood being shed, as in Psa_94:21. Vatablus, Cornelius a Lapide. and Gesenius support the latter view (cf. Mic_7:2, "They all lie in wait for blood," i.e. for bloodshed, or murder. (dam) may be also taken for life in the sense that "the blood is the life". (Deu_12:23) Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. The relation of the phrase. "without cause" ( khinnam), in this sentence is a matter of lnueh dispute. It may be taken either with
(1) the verb (as in the Authorized Version, Wordsworth, Luther, Van Ess, Noyes, Zockler, Delitzsch, Hatzig, LXX, Syriac, Rashi, Ralbac), and then "lurk privily without cause" is equivalent to
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(a) without having any reason for revenge and enmity (Zockler), i.e. though they have not provoked us, nor done us any injury, yet let us hurt them, in the sense of absque causa (Munsterus, Paganini Version, Piscatoris Version, Mercerus), adikwv (LXX), inique (Arabic);
(b) with impunity, since none will avenge them in the sense of Job_9:12 (this is the view of Lowestein, but it is rejected by Delitzsch); or
(2) it may be taken with the adjective "innocent," in which case it means him that is innocent in vain; i.e. the man whose innocence will in vain protect (Zockler, Holden), who gets nothing by it (Plumptre), or, innocent in vain, since God does not vindicate hint (Cornelius a Lapide). On the analogy of 1Sa_19:5 1Sa_25:31 Psa_35:19 Psa_69:4 Lam_3:52, it seems preferable to adopt the first connection, and to take the adverb with the verb. In the whole of the passage there is an evident allusion to an evil prevalent in the age of Solomon, viz. the presence of bands of robbers, or banditti, who disturbed the security and internal peace of the country. In the New Testament the same state of things continued, and is alluded to by our Lord in the parable of the man who fell among thieves.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.