My child, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths.
Parallel translations
- WEB My son, don’t walk on the path with them. Keep your foot from their path,
- KJV My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
- BSB my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path.
- NKJV My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path;
- NASB My son, do not walk on the way with them. Keep your feet from their path,
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 father urges his son not to walk in their way at all. It matters because wisdom calls for decisive separation from the path of sin.
Overview
After quoting the enticement, the father commands total avoidance: do not even set foot on their road. Sin is resisted not by flirting with it but by keeping distance from its very path. This reflects the consistent biblical pattern of fleeing temptation rather than negotiating with it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 119:101I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe your word.
- Ps 1:1Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
- Prov 4:14–15Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men.
- Prov 4:27Don’t turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.
- Ps 26:4–5I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites.
- 2 Cor 6:17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
- Prov 9:6Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
- Prov 13:20One who walks with wise men grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
- Prov 5:8Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
- Jer 14:10Yahweh says to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 1:15 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.