And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
The verse belongs to the warnings in the first seven chapters against refusing instruction and choosing the path of folly, for the path of wisdom is the path of life. To reject its reproofs and break God's spiritual laws is to bring spiritual disease and death, as a person's own choices bring ruin upon his own life. In its immediate setting in Proverbs 1:8-19 and 1:10-19, it warns against rejecting wise parental counsel, joining companions in wrongdoing, and being enticed by sinners. It is part of the warning that those who despise wisdom and reject the Lord's counsel will be destroyed.
The word translated life or lives is the Hebrew nephesh, rendered here as life or lives rather than soul. Those who secretly lie in wait to harm others, to shed blood and take innocent lives, lay wait for their own blood and lurk privily for their own lives. While plotting violence against others they endanger themselves, and their schemes turn back to bring danger, destruction, and death on themselves. Even evil company and sinful choices pursued for gain bring harm on the pursuers' own lives.
The warning applies to a young person who dismisses a father's advice and is drawn by bad company and temptation into sinful choices. That rejection of parental counsel begins a downward course that ends in crime and ruin. Resisting evil associates protects the heart from a path leading to shame and crime. It applies specifically to those who lure children into drinking: in plotting to ruin other people's lives they bring ruin on themselves.
The verse belongs to the warnings in the first seven chapters against refusing instruction and choosing the path of folly, for the path of wisdom is the path of life. To reject its reproofs and break God's spiritual laws is to bring spiritual disease and death, as a person's own choices bring ruin upon his own life. In its immediate setting in Proverbs 1:8-19 and 1:10-19, it warns against rejecting wise parental counsel, joining companions in wrongdoing, and being enticed by sinners. It is part of the warning that those who despise wisdom and reject the Lord's counsel will be destroyed.
The word translated life or lives is the Hebrew nephesh, rendered here as life or lives rather than soul. Those who secretly lie in wait to harm others, to shed blood and take innocent lives, lay wait for their own blood and lurk privily for their own lives. While plotting violence against others they endanger themselves, and their schemes turn back to bring danger, destruction, and death on themselves. Even evil company and sinful choices pursued for gain bring harm on the pursuers' own lives.
The warning applies to a young person who dismisses a father's advice and is drawn by bad company and temptation into sinful choices. That rejection of parental counsel begins a downward course that ends in crime and ruin. Resisting evil associates protects the heart from a path leading to shame and crime. It applies specifically to those who lure children into drinking: in plotting to ruin other people's lives they bring ruin on themselves.