Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.
Parallel translations
- WEB Avoid it, and don’t pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.
- KJV Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
- NKJV Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.
- NASB Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on.
- NLT Don’t even think about it; don’t go that way. Turn away and keep moving.
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
Avoid the wicked way; do not travel it, but turn aside and pass on. Decisive avoidance of evil is wisdom.
Overview
The piling up of urgent verbs, avoid, do not pass by, turn from, pass on, stresses how seriously one must flee from the path of evil. There is no safe dabbling; the wise put distance between themselves and sin. This reflects the biblical call to flee temptation rather than negotiate with it (1 Cor 6:18; 2 Tim 2:22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Eph 5:11Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
- Job 22:23If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents
- 1 Th 5:22Abstain from every form of evil.
- Job 11:14if you put away the iniquity in your hand, and allow no injustice to dwell in your tents,
- Exod 23:7Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.
- Isa 33:15He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—
- Prov 5:8Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
- Prov 6:5Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
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 4:15 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.