If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
Parallel translations
- WEB If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly 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:
- NKJV If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
- NASB If they say, “Come with us, Let’s lie in wait for blood, Let’s ambush the innocent without cause;
- NLT They may say, “Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The enticers invite the youth to ambush and harm the innocent. It matters because it exposes how sin disguises violence as exciting fellowship.
Overview
Here the seducers' words are quoted, beginning their appeal to join a violent gang lying in wait for innocent victims. Sin is portrayed as predatory and cruel, attacking those 'without cause.' Scripture unmasks such bloodshed as the opposite of God's justice and care for the innocent.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Prov 1:18But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.
- Jer 5:26For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.
- Prov 12:6The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
- Jer 18:18–20Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”
- Acts 25:3to grant them a concession against Paul by summoning him to Jerusalem, because they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.
- Ps 64:5–6They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. “Who will see them?” they say.
- Ps 56:6They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps while they wait to take my life.
- Prov 30:14there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.
- Ps 10:8–10He lies in wait near the villages; in ambush he slays the innocent; his eyes watch in stealth for the helpless.
- Matt 26:3–4At that time the chief priests and elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
- Ps 35:7For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.
- Prov 1:16For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
- John 15:25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
- Acts 23:15Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”
- Mic 7:2The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Jer 11:19For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”
- Ps 17:12like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 1:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.