Proverbs 1:11

Good News Translation

Suppose they say, "Come on; let's find someone to kill! Let's attack some innocent people for the fun of it!

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
If they say—“Come with us!Let’s set an ambush and kill someone.Let’s attack some innocent person just for fun!

Hebrew Names Version
If they say, "Come with us, Let's lay in wait for blood; Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

King James Version
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

English Standard Version
If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason;

New Century Version
They will say, "Come with us. Let's ambush and kill someone; let's attack some innocent people just for fun.

New English Translation
If they say, "Come with us! We will lie in wait to shed blood; we will ambush an innocent person capriciously.

Amplified Bible
If they say, "Come with us; Let us lie in wait to shed blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

New American Standard Bible
If they say, "Come with us, Let's lie in wait for blood, Let's ambush the innocent without cause;

World English Bible
If they say, "Come with us, Let's lay in wait for blood; Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

Geneva Bible (1587)
If they say, Come with vs, we will lay waite for blood, and lie priuilie for the innocent without a cause:

Legacy Standard Bible
If they say, "Come with us,Let us lie in wait for blood,Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

Berean Standard Bible
If they say, "Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

Contemporary English Version
when they say, "Come on! Let's gang up and kill somebody, just for the fun of it!

Complete Jewish Bible
Suppose they say, "Come with us: we'll ambush somebody and kill him, we'll waylay some harmless soul, just for fun;

Darby Translation
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

Easy-to-Read Version
They will say, "Come with us. Let's hide and beat to death anyone who happens to walk by.

George Lamsa Translation
If they say to you, Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us lie in wait for the innocent, wrongfully;

Lexham English Bible
If they say, "Come with us! We shall lie in wait for blood; we shall ambush the innocent without cause.

Literal Translation
If they say, Walk with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us secretly lurk for the innocent without cause,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yf they entyse the, and saye: come wyth us, let us laye wayte for bloude, & lurke preuely for the innocet wythout a cause:

American Standard Version
If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

Bible in Basic English
If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
If they say: 'Come with us,

King James Version (1611)
If they say, Come with vs, let vs lay wait for blood, let vs lurke priuily for the innocent without cause:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If they say, come with vs, let vs lay wayte for blood, and lurke priuily for the innocent without a cause:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
If they should exhort thee, saying, Come with us, partake in blood, and let us unjustly hide the just man in the earth:

English Revised Version
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If thei seien, Come thou with vs, sette we aspies to blood, hide we snaris of disseitis ayens an innocent without cause;

Update Bible Version
If they say, Come with us, Let us lay in wait for blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

Webster's Bible Translation
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

New King James Version
If they say, "Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

New Living Translation
They may say, "Come and join us. Let's hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let's ambush the innocent!

New Life Bible
If they say, "Come with us. Let us lie in wait to kill someone. Let us set a trap for those who are without blame.

New Revised Standard
If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us wantonly ambush the innocent;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If they say - Come with us, - Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us watch in secret for him who is needlessly innocent;

Douay-Rheims Bible
If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:

Revised Standard Version
If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us wantonly ambush the innocent;

Young's Literal Translation
If they say, `Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If they say, "Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ My child, when sinners tempt you, don't give in. ¹¹ Suppose they say, "Come on; let's find someone to kill! Let's attack some innocent people for the fun of it! ¹² They may be alive and well when we find them, but they'll be dead when we're through with them! ¹³ We'll find all kinds of riches and fill our houses with loot! ¹⁴ Come and join us, and we'll all share what we steal." ¹⁵ My child, don't go with people like that. Stay away from them. ¹⁶ They can't wait to do something bad. They're always ready to kill. ¹⁷ It does no good to spread a net when the bird you want to catch is watching, ¹⁸ but people like that are setting a trap for themselves, a trap in which they will die. ¹⁹ Robbery always claims the life of the robber—this is what happens to anyone who lives by violence.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

let us lay: Proverbs 1:16, Proverbs 12:6, Proverbs 30:14, Psalms 56:6, Psalms 64:5, Psalms 64:6, Jeremiah 5:26, Micah 7:2, Acts 23:15, Acts 25:3

let us lurk: Proverbs 1:18, Psalms 10:8-10, Psalms 17:12, Psalms 35:7, Jeremiah 11:19, Jeremiah 18:18-20, Matthew 26:3, Matthew 26:4, John 15:25

Reciprocal: Genesis 11:3 - they said one to another Genesis 37:20 - and let Genesis 49:6 - come Exodus 1:10 - Come on Exodus 20:13 - General Exodus 23:2 - follow Deuteronomy 27:25 - General Judges 9:3 - spake Judges 9:25 - General Judges 9:32 - by night Judges 9:48 - What ye Judges 14:15 - Entice Job 31:31 - Oh Psalms 71:10 - and they Psalms 94:21 - gather Psalms 119:110 - wicked Proverbs 6:17 - and hands Proverbs 13:2 - the soul Proverbs 13:20 - but Proverbs 24:1 - neither Proverbs 24:15 - Lay Proverbs 29:24 - partner Ecclesiastes 5:13 - riches Jeremiah 5:27 - so are Ezekiel 38:11 - go up Hosea 6:9 - as troops Acts 20:3 - the Jews

Cross-References

Genesis 1:9
Then God commanded, "Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear"—and it was done.

Genesis 1:13
Evening passed and morning came—that was the third day.

Genesis 1:14
Then God commanded, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals begin;

Genesis 1:16
So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars.

Genesis 1:17
He placed the lights in the sky to shine on the earth,

Genesis 1:20
Then God commanded, "Let the water be filled with many kinds of living beings, and let the air be filled with birds."

Genesis 1:29
I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat;

Genesis 2:5
there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because he had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land;

Genesis 2:9
He made all kinds of beautiful trees grow there and produce good fruit. In the middle of the garden stood the tree that gives life and the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad.

Genesis 2:16
He told him, "You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If they say, come with us,.... Leave your father's house, and the business of life in which you are; make one of us, and become a member of our society, and go along with us upon the highway;

let us lay wait for blood; lie in ambush under some hedge or another, waiting till a rich traveller comes up and passes that way, and then rise and shed his blood in order to get his money; and the same word signifies both "blood" and "money", and wait is laid for one for the sake of the other;

let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; or "let us hide" q, the Vulgate Latin version adds "snares"; so Vatablus and others, as the fowler does for birds; or "let us hide ourselves" r; in some private place, waiting "for the innocent", the harmless traveller, who has done no injury to any man's person or property; thinks himself safe, and is not aware of any design upon him; going about his lawful business, and having done nothing to provoke such miscreants to attempt his life or take away his property: and which they do "without cause" as to him; "freely" s as to themselves; and "with impunity" t, as they promise themselves and one another; all which senses the word used will bear.

q נצפנה "abscondamus", Michaelis. r "Abscondamus nos", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator "abscondamus nosmetipsos", Baynus. s חנם "gratis", Pagninus, Montanus, Michaelis, Schultens. t "Impune", Junius & Tremellius, Amama.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The temptation against which the teacher seeks to guard his disciple is that of joining a band of highway robbers. The “vain men” who gathered around Jephthah Judges 11:3, the lawless or discontented who came to David in Adullam 1 Samuel 22:2, the bands of robbers who infested every part of the country in the period of the New Testament, and against whom every Roman governor had to wage incessant war, show how deeply rooted the evil was in Palestine. Compare the Psalms 10:7, note; Psalms 10:10 note.

Without cause - Better, in vain; most modern commentators join the words with “innocent,” and interpret them after Job 1:9. The evil-doers deride their victims as being righteous “in vain.” They get nothing by it. It does them no good.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 1:11. If they say, Come with us — From all accounts, this is precisely the way in which the workers of iniquity form their partisans, and constitute their marauding societies to the present day.

Let us lay wait for blood — Let us rob and murder.

Let us lurk privily — Let us lie in ambush for our prey.