The Beginning of Wisdom
If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause, Proverbs 1:11 · Berean Standard Bible
The sinners' pitch to you will be a proposal to join them in violence—to deliberately hurt innocent people for personal gain.
Solomon doesn't soften what's being proposed. These aren't people suggesting a small moral compromise; they're planning violent crime against people who've done nothing to them. He wants you to see clearly what you're being asked to do, without any romantic language. This is murder for profit.
Solomon quotes the actual enticement he's warning against.
Throughout Scripture, God warns His people that evil often comes with persuasive words. The serpent in Genesis used attractive language to suggest disobedience. Solomon is teaching you to look past the packaging and see what's actually being offered.
The criminals' pitch is nakedly violent—they propose waiting in ambush to assault the innocent, then plunder their goods.
The quoted speech represents the actual rhetoric of criminal bands in antiquity—offering membership, shared risk, and material gain. The appeal to 'innocent' targets makes the wickedness explicit: these are vulnerable people, not dangerous rivals. The methodology of ambush (tzafan) is the strategy of predators.
The criminals speaking in quoted dialogue, demonstrating their pitch to the young man
This presents temptation with theological clarity: evil doesn't merely offer forbidden fruit but enlists the young person as an agent of others' harm, inverting the covenant's demand to love the neighbor.
9For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.
10My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them.
11If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
12let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.
13We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder.
Read all of Proverbs 1 — The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs doesn't start with information — it starts with orientation.
This page covers one. BibleKey does all 31,102 — tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and keep reading without leaving the chapter.
Not just the famous ones. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad