Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place:
- BSB Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, near the dwelling of the righteous; do not destroy his resting place.
- NKJV Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Do not plunder his resting place;
- NASB ¶Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;
- NLT Don’t wait in ambush at the home of the godly, and don’t raid the house where the godly live.
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
Do not plot against or attack the home of the righteous.
Overview
Wisdom directly addresses the wicked, forbidding ambush against the righteous person's dwelling and rest. The righteous are under God's protection, and assaulting them invites His judgment. The verse assures that God watches over His people's peace, a security ultimately guaranteed in Christ, who keeps His own (John 10:28-29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 140:5The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.
- Isa 32:18And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
- 1 Sam 23:20–23Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.
- Acts 9:24But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.
- Jer 11:19But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
- Ps 56:6They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
- Prov 1:11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
- 1 Sam 9:11And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here?
- Ps 59:3For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.
- 1 Sam 22:18–19And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
- Acts 25:3And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.
- Ps 37:32The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
- Acts 23:16And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.
- Matt 26:4And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.
- Prov 22:28Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.
- Ps 10:8–10He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
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 24:15 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.