Proverbs 1:11
in Proverbs 1If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
KJV
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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This verse in Proverbs 1
Commentary
14 notes on this verseWherefore by Solomon He commands the children to beware: "My son, let not sinners deceive thee, and go not after their ways; and go not, if they entice thee, saying, Come with us, share with us in innocent blood, and let us hide unjustly the righteous man in the earth; let us put him out of sight, all alive as he is into Hades." This is accordingly likewise a prediction concerning the Lord's passion.
This site's exposition
My son, if sinners entice you
on Proverbs 1:10-14
“My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them” opens the first voice the father warns against. The offer has the pattern, invitation, belonging and hidden cost: “share one purse,” the con of every gang, that shared spoil buys shared guilt. The father's strategy is refusal before argument.
This site's exposition
let us lie in wait for blood
The gang means to lie in wait beside the road for travelers and ambush the innocent without cause. Albert Barnes recalls the lawless men who gathered around Jephthah at Judges 11:3, a sign of how old such bands were in Israel. Their aim is blood.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
These things he understands of the people of the Jews, and their guilt in the blood of Christ; for they thought that He had His conversation (citizenship) on earth only.
There is one text in Proverbs so far from being obscure that its relationship to Christ and his possession, the church, can be grasped without any such trouble. Wicked men are speaking: "Let us unjustly hide away in the earth the just man, let us swallow him up alive like hell. Let us abolish his memory from the earth, let us lay hands upon his precious possession." This is very like what the Lord Jesus himself, in one of the Gospel parables, puts into the mouths of the wicked vinedressers: "This is the heir; come let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance."
The Medieval Church2 voices
"If they say, Come with us," etc. This passage can be generally said of robbers, who bring either death traps or harm to the innocent. It can also be specifically understood of those who handed over the author of life to death.
"Let us lay in wait for the innocent without cause." They did this when they said: "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" (Mark 12) and countless other similar things. Truly he was innocent, who did no sin, nor was deceit found …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
If they say, come with us,....
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
A faithful and lively representation of wisdom's reasonings with the children of men, and the certain ruin of those who turn a deaf ear to those reasonings,
How pernicious the consequences of it will be. They are plainly told that this wicked way will certainly end in their own destruction, and yet they persist in it. Herein, (1.) They are like the silly bird, that sees the net spread to take her, and yet it is in vain; she is decoyed into it by the bait, and will not take the warning which her own eyes gave her,
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
A solemn warning against temptation. entice--literally, "open the way." consent . . . not--Sin is in consenting or yielding to temptation, not in being tempted.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Abundant rewards of villainy are promised as the fruits of this easy and safe course. The society of the wicked (way or path) is dangerous. Avoid the beginnings of sin (Pr 4:14;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
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. Let us lurk privily - Let us lie in ambush for our prey.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| יֹאמְרוּ֮ | yomeru | they will say | H559 → | 5305 times |
| לְכָ֪ה | lekhah | come ! | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| אִ֫תָּ֥נוּ | ʾitanu | with us | H854 → | 929 times |
| נֶאֶרְבָ֥ה | neervah | let us lie in wait | H693 → | 41 times |
| לְדָ֑ם | ledam | for blood | H1818 → | 360 times |
| נִצְפְּנָ֖ה | nitzpenah | let us lie hidden | H6845 → | 32 times |
| לְנָקִ֣י | lenaki | for an innocent [one] | H5355 → | |
| חִנָּֽם׃ | chinam | without cause | H2600 → | 32 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
יֹאמְרוּ֮they will say
yomeruH559 →5305 times
לְכָ֪הcome !
lekhahH1980 →1546 times
אִ֫תָּ֥נוּwith us
ʾitanuH854 →929 times
נֶאֶרְבָ֥הlet us lie in wait
neervahH693 →41 times
לְדָ֑םfor blood
ledamH1818 →360 times
נִצְפְּנָ֖הlet us lie hidden
nitzpenahH6845 →32 times
לְנָקִ֣יfor an innocent [one]
lenakiH5355 →
חִנָּֽם׃without cause
chinamH2600 →32 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 12:6The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
it leads to
- Proverbs 14:3
The proud speech of a fool brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.
- Proverbs 14:3
Through
Proverbs 1:18But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.
it leads to
- Psalms 9:16
The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah
- Esther 7:10
So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.
- Proverbs 5:22–23
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
- Proverbs 28:17
A man burdened by bloodguilt will flee into the Pit; let no one support him.
- Psalms 9:16
Through
Jeremiah 5:26For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.
it leads to
- Psalms 64:5
They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. “Who will see them?” they say.
- Ezekiel 22:2–12
“As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations
- Jeremiah 18:22
Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.
- Psalms 64:5
Where this verse is studied
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About Proverbs
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, City of God 17.20; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 1; Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.