The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
Parallel Translations
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The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
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The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
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The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood; but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Proverbs 12:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 14:3 The fool’s talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect 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.
- Proverbs 1:11-19 If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let’s swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit. We’ll find all valuable wealth. We’ll fill our houses with plunder. You shall cast your lot among us. We’ll all have one purse.” My son, don’t walk on the path with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood. For the net is spread in vain in the sight of any bird; but these lay in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.
- Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
- 2 Samuel 17:1-4 Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight. I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him will flee. I will strike the king only, and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.” The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
- Esther 4:7-14 Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Susa to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people. Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai: “All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” They told Esther’s words to Mordecai. Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
- Esther 7:4-6 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?” Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
- Acts 23:12 When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.
- 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 (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain As their conscience is upright, so shall they be…
As their conscience is upright, so shall they be able to speak for themselves against their accusers.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 12:6 The words of the wicked [are] to…
Pro 12:6 The words of the wicked [are] to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
Ver. 6. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood.] As they think not, so neither speak they the language of the righteous. "Ye are the light of the world"; {Mat 5:14} and because the light stands in the light of their wicked ways, as the angel in Balaam’s way to his sin, therefore they hate the saints; and, as all hatred is bloody, seek their lives, mixing cruelty with their craft, as Cain, Herod, Julian, &c. The old serpent lends them his seven heads to plot, and his ten horns to push. Their own study and exercise also hath made them expert and skilful in their hellish trade; and the taste of blood hath made them as hungry as hounds after it. Thus I kept the ban dogs at stave’s end, said Nicholas Shetterden, martyr, not as thinking to escape them, but that I would see the foxes leap above ground for my blood, if they can reach it, so it be the will of God; yet we shall see them gape and leap for it. {a}
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But the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.] Shall defend harmless men that are helpless. {Pro 24:11} Hence those many apologies of Tertullian, Apollonius, Arnobius, and others for the primitive Christians under persecution. Hence we had that unparalleled work, Calvin’s Institutions, which was written upon this occasion. Francis, king of France, willing to excuse his cruelty exercised upon his Protestant subjects to the German princes, whose friendship he then desired, wrote to them, that he only punished Anabaptists for their contempt of the Scriptures, and of all civil government. Calvin, though then but twenty-five years of age, not able to bear that blur cast upon the reformed religion under the name of those sectaries, set forth that excellent work, as well to vindicate the truth, as to plead for the innocence of those that professed it. {b}
{a} Acts and Mon.
{b} Scultet., Annal., 454.
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 Are to lie in wait for blood; are designed…
Are to lie in wait for blood; are designed and ordered to entrap or deceive others, and to destroy them.
Shall deliver them, to wit, from those that lie in wait for them; which it doth, either,
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1. By prayer to God for their deliverance; or,
2. By pacifying the wicked with soft and gentle answers, or by diverting them from their evil course by their good counsels and admonitions; or,
3. By pleading their righteous cause in a judicial or other way.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain In the foregoing verse the thoughts of the wicked…
In the foregoing verse the thoughts of the wicked and righteous were compared; here their words, and those are as the abundance of the heart is. 1. Wicked people speak mischief to their neighbours; and wicked indeed those are whose words are to lie in wait for blood; their tongues are swords to those that stand in their way, to good men whom they hate and persecute. See an instance, Luk 20:20, Luk 20:21. 2. Good men speak help to their neighbours: The mouth of the upright is ready to be opened in the cause of those that are oppressed (Pro 31:8), to plead for them, to witness for them, and so to deliver them, particularly those whom the wicked lie in wait for. A man may sometimes do a very good work with one good word.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The words of the wicked are to lie in…
The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood,.... Which some understand of perjury and false witness, as Jarchi, whereby the lives of innocent persons are taken away: or it may be interpreted either of the smooth words and fair speeches, and secret artifices, antichrist and his emissaries make use of to entrap the innocent, and draw them into their net, to their ruin; see Psa 10:7; as the Jews attempted to deal with Christ, Luk 20:20; or of the laws and edicts of the beast, that such should be killed who would not worship his image; and with the blood of these innocent ones the whore of Rome is said to be drunk, Rev 13:15;
but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them: the innocent laid in wait for; either by their prayers to God, which are of great avail with him, and through whose importunity he will avenge his elect, and deliver them; or through their apologies for them, and defences of them, as in the times of Pagan persecution; or rather through the doctrines of the reformation, whereby many simple and unwary souls were delivered, who were in danger of being ensnared; and whereby the eyes of many princes were opened, and were stirred up to protect those innocent ones, and prevent their blood being shed.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Lie in wait - Are designed to entrap others,…
Lie in wait - Are designed to entrap others, and to destroy them. Deliver them - From those that lie in wait for them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Shall deliver them - i. e., The righteous themselves.
Shall deliver them - i. e., The righteous themselves.
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 The words--or, "expressed designs" of the wicked are for…
The words--or, "expressed designs" of the wicked are for evil purposes.
the mouth--or, "words" of the righteous delivering instead of ensnaring men.
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 6. Are to lie in wait — Are a…
6. Are to lie in wait — Are a lying in wait — an ambush.
For blood — That is, to shed blood, to take life. Compare Pro_1:11-18; Pro_11:9. Shall deliver them — Namely, those whose blood is sought. It is implied that this shall be done by their counsels, advices, pleas, or prayers — by what proceeds out of their mouth. “Men sincerely good give the best advice they can to deliver such innocent persons from their bloody snares.”
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— Patrick. But others understand that the upright shall deliver themselves.
The Speaker’s Commentary prefers the latter. Luk_20:3-7; Luk_20:19; Luk_20:41, seq.
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 6. to lie in wait] So R.V. marg., a…
6. to lie in wait] So R.V. marg., a lying in wait; but R.V. text, of lying in wait, comp. Pro_1:11.
them] This may mean either the righteous themselves, or those for whose blood the wicked lie in wait.
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 (6) The words of the wicked are to lie…
(6) The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood—i.e., are calculated for this end.
The mouth of the upright shall deliver them—i.e., those for whom the wicked lie in wait.
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 The words of the wicked are to lie in…
The words of the wicked are to lie in wait a lying in wait for blood. (see Pro_1:11) The wicked, by their lies, slanders, false accusations, etc., endanger men"s lives, as Jezebel compassed Naboth"s death by false witness. (1Ki_21:13) The mouth of the upright shall deliver them; i.e. the innocent whose blood the wicked seek. The good plead the cause of the oppressed, using their eloquence in their favour, as in the Apocryphal Story of Susannah, Daniel saved the accused woman from the slanders of the elders.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 6. The words of the wicked are to…
v. 6. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood, they intend malice and violence, their thoughts find expression in bloodthirsty and murderous ways; but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them, namely, those whose life is threatened by the wicked with their murderous designs.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.