¶Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy 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:
- KJV Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not 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;
- 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 hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path. They have set traps for me. Selah.
- Isa 32:18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
- 1 Sam 23:20–23Now therefore, O king, come down. According to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part will be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.”
- Acts 9:24but their plot became known to Saul. They watched the gates both day and night that they might kill him,
- Jer 11:19But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I didn’t know that they had devised devices against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.”
- Ps 56:6They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.
- Prov 1:11If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.
- 1 Sam 9:11As they went up the ascent to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said to them, “Is the seer here?”
- Ps 59:3For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
- 1 Sam 22:18–19The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.
- Acts 25:3asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem; plotting to kill him on the way.
- Ps 37:32The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him.
- Acts 23:16But Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, and he came and entered into the barracks and told Paul.
- Matt 26:4They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit, and kill him.
- Prov 22:28Don’t move the ancient boundary stone, which your fathers have set up.
- Ps 10:8–10He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.
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 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.