If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
Parallel translations
- WEB Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
- BSB Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter.
- NKJV Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
- NASB ¶Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!
- NLT Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death.
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
Act to rescue those being unjustly led toward death; do not stand idle.
Overview
Wisdom commands active intervention on behalf of those facing wrongful death or destruction. To know of such peril and do nothing is a culpable failure. This love that acts to save reflects the heart of God and finds its supreme expression in Christ, who came to rescue those staggering toward death (Luke 19:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 82:4Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
- Isa 58:6–7Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
- 1 Jn 3:16–17Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
- Job 29:17And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
- 1 Sam 26:8–9Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.
- Luke 10:31–32And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
- Luke 23:23–25And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.
- Acts 21:31–32And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
- Acts 23:23–35And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night;
- Acts 18:17Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.
- Acts 23:10And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.
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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 24:11 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.