Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 1:10

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

The Teacher passes from Appeal to Warning: Against Evil Companions. Chap. 1. Pro 1:10-19

10. sinners ] The warning points to a state of society of which indications are to be found not only in the unsettled times “when the Judges ruled” and before the monarchy was firmly established, when “vain” and “discontented” men banded together to lead the life of the outlaw and the freebooter (Jdg 11:3; 1Sa 22:2); but also in the better ordered periods of Jewish history when Psalmist and prophet inveigh against those who lurk privily in secret to murder the innocent (Psa 10:8-10), and those whose feet are swift to shed blood (Isa 59:7). When our Lord was upon earth such robbing with violence and bloodshed was so familiar an incident in Palestine that He was able to make it the groundwork of a parable (Luk 10:30). And it is so still. “Strange country! and it has always been so. There are a hundred allusions to just such things in the history, the psalms and the prophets of Israel. A whole class of imagery is based upon them. Psa 10:8-10; ‘He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages’ &c. And a thousand rascals, the living originals of this picture, are this day crouching and lying in wait all over the country to catch poor helpless travellers.” (Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 314.)

Two hundred years ago, when young men even of birth and education were to be found in the ranks of the highwaymen who overran the country (see, for example, Macaulay, Hist. of Eng. Vol. i. ch. iii.), the warning was no less apposite in England. In our own day, even in the special form which it here assumes, the warning, in view of the gangs of desperate men, poachers and burglars, to be found still both in towns and in the country, has not come to be superfluous, while in its wider aspect, “My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not,” it is of universal application.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The first great danger which besets the simple and the young is that of evil companionship. The only safety is to be found in the power of saying No, to all such invitations.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Pro 1:10-19

My son, if sinners entice thee.

Reasons for resisting the enticements of sinners

By sinners is meant all persons who are not true Christians. Three reasons why we should not consent when sinners entice us:

1. Because when we begin to sin it is hard to stop.

2. Because it is dangerous.

3. Because it is disgraceful.

(1) It is so in the looks it gives us.

(2) It is so in the company into which it brings us.

Two things we ought to do:

1. Get rid of the sins we have committed.

2. Try to keep from sinning any more.

Said a boy to his sister one day, I want the spirit to look sin right in the face when it comes to me, and say, Begone. Yes, replied the sister, and one thing more you want; you want Gods spectacles to see sin and know it when it comes, for it does not always show its colours. (R. Newton, D.D.)

Sinful enticements

How industrious wicked people are to seduce others into the paths of the destroyer. Sinners love company in sin; the angels that fell were tempters almost as soon as they were sinners. They do not threaten or argue, but entice with flattery and fair speech; with a bait they draw the unwary young man to the hook.. But they mistake if they think that by bringing others to partake with them in their guilt, and to be bound, as it were, in the bond with them, they shall have the less to pay themselves, for they will have so much the more to answer for. (Matthew Henry.)

The various ways by which sinners entice us to vice

I. I shall mention some of the various ways by which sinners entice us to vice.

1. They represent it as a light and trivial matter, and at the worst as venial and pardonable. What is it, they will probably say, but a human weakness and infirmity, to which all men are subject? Can it be criminal to follow the dictates of ones natural passions? You can be no worse than thousands who indulge in the same excesses. They will give soft names to the greatest abominations in order to prevent alarm. In this way the understanding is imposed upon and the conscience is silenced. When vice is painted in all its black colours we are apt to be alarmed at the commission of it, but when it is stripped of its deformity we become more reconciled to it, and more readily yield. But can that be a light matter which is treason against the Almighty and which has subjected us to death? Perhaps we are more in danger from smaller than greater transgressions, because they steal upon us more imperceptibly, and draw us insensibly into the commission of them. Is not this a good argument to be jealous of the very appearance of evil and to loathe the garments spotted with iniquity?

2. By representing the gain and the pleasure which accompany it. Gain and pleasure are the two great charmers which have seduced mankind and led them captive at their will. What foul and black crimes hath the love of money been the means of perpetrating! To this corrupt source may be traced all the fraud and injustice, all the theft and robbery which have been committed. And what is the acquisition of wealth, upon which men are so much set? Is it any substantial, permanent good? Will it preserve health, prolong life, or ward off death? The love of pleasure has ruined many. It enchants the simple. Health has been impaired.

3. By traducing the principles of good men and turning their manners into ridicule. The gospel hath unfolded a glorious plan of salvation by which God, consistently with the purity of His nature and the perfection of His government, can be reconciled to the chief of sinners. It is nobly adapted to restore peace to the troubled mind and to inspire the hope of immortality. Shall we be laughed out of it by any set of men or for any gratification whatever?

4. By leading the road and calling us to follow them. It must be allowed that example has a powerful influence upon mankind and will often prevail when all other means prove ineffectual. Good-nature may not allow him to separate from his companions. To do as others do hath long been a powerful principle of action, and hath carried men greater lengths than they ever thought of.

Before I proceed to the second branch of the subject I shall give an advice or two to the young.

1. Cultivate an early acquaintance with God.

2. Carefully avoid the company of the ungodly. Who knows but your principles may be shaken and your morals corrupted before you are aware?

3. Be earnest in prayer to God that He may never suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. Heaven is your best resource, and from whence your most effectual aids do come.

II. A few arguments which, by the blessing of God, will enable us to resist them.

1. It is mean and dishonourable to be connected with bad men.

2. It is the most prejudicial to your best and eternal interests. The health will be impaired, the soul lost.

3. The infinite obligations you are under to your God and Redeemer.

4. If you consent you will lay a foundation for much anguish and remorse. Loose and dissipated men may put on what appearance of gaiety and mirth they please, but I am apt to think it is more affected than real, more feigned than true.

5. The distress and grief in which you must involve your parents and friends. (D. Johnstone, D.D.)

The allurements of sin

I. A danger implied It is the nature of sin to be aggressive. Wherever it obtains an entrance it will, if not destroyed, ultimately become the master. It cannot exist without seeking to push itself forward to some new conquest. There was never one transgressor yet who did not try to make another like himself. There is on earth what may be called a huge propaganda of evil. Self-security only makes more easy victims.

II. A method exposed. The word entice implies that they do not ask you plainly and directly to commit sin as sin, but rather set before you some real or imaginary pleasure which you can get only by a commission of that which is sin. They dexterously conceal the fact that it is sin. They bait their hook. The sin is to be committed as a means to an end, and the mind is so occupied by the end that the guilt of the means is overlooked. Then it is well to know the enticements which are commonly employed to delude and allure the unwary.

1. One common enticement is the increase of knowledge. The assertion is made that they will see life.

2. Another is pleasure. That may be good, but it is well to ask, What will it cost? It is dear if it can only be bought by the forfeiture of peace of conscience and the favour of God.

3. Another is the love of liberty. You are asked to do the doubtful or the wrong just to assert your liberty.

4. The tempter promises that you will never be discovered. It is urged, Nobody will ever know. Yes, God will know.

III. Resistance. Enforced. Consent thou not. Give a plain, downright, emphatic refusal. The right use of the word No at the critical turning-points of life will save a man from destruction. There are two excellent maxims as regards our moral actions–

1. Always force yourselves to come to a positive decision in all matters of conduct.

2. Never allow yourselves to deliberate on a matter in reference to which conscience is clear.

IV. A motive suggested. In this resistance which has been urged. The text is a parental appeal, and brings to bear upon us all the memories and associations of our earliest home. Cherish them, and they will build for you a breakwater within reach, by means of which you may safely override the fiercest storms and whirlwinds of temptation. (W. M. Taylor, D.D.)

Bad company

The desire to make proselytes to our speculative opinions, and bring over others to think as we do, is not a more constant attendant on our pride and conceit than the desire in men of vicious lives to make the practice of others as bad as their own. Whether it be that many kinds of wickedness require numbers to associate, in order to their being carried on with success, so that they who are engaged in them are constantly beating up for allies; whether the sense of shame is not lessened, and the censure of the decent portion of mankind made more tolerable when multitudes share in it; whether the conscience is not, also, soothed and flattered from the same cause; or whether, lastly, the perversion of their ways has produced in such men a gratuitous desire of doing hurt, and a love of mischief for its own sake; so it is–the loss of his own virtue produces in a man the desire to overcome the virtue of others. The particular sin which the preacher had in his thoughts at the time was that of dishonesty, and the enticement he speaks of was to the taking of property belonging to others, and living upon it, instead of labouring for an honourable and independent livelihood. He selects that species of crime, out of many that would have answered as well, as a specimen whereby to illustrate his argument, and show the ruin and misery to which the path of sin conducts a man. There is one property, common to the language of all enticers of others to sin, of whatever kind the sin be; and Solomon has not failed to notice it in the case he has supposed. It is the pretence of the most disinterested friendship, high professions of good-will and regard for the person they undertake to entice. Come with us; cast thy lot among us; let us all have one purse. They who entice them to the sin disguise their secret ends, their abominable selfishness, so successfully, under appearance of generosity, that they are blinded for a time, and think the morality which they have learned at home too strict and impracticable, and the kindness they received from their parents and relations hardly worthy to be compared to the friendship of these men. How, then, is a man to judge in this matter? Is he to pass through life with a sour suspicion of mankind, reject all their kindness as a cloak for bad designs, and hold the opinion that no man is ever loved save by his father and mother? Far from it. In the passage before us he propounds a test and criterion whereby a young person may distinguish between true and false friendship; and it is this: that the true will always be accompanied with a concern for his virtue. If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. I know not how I can better illustrate this maxim of Solomon than by stating, in the royal authors own words, the consequences of listening to the counsels of the ungodly–the solicitations to sin, with which the young are sure to be assailed by cunning and practised offenders. For example, with respect to sins of licentiousness, and the temptations thereto, he says of him that yieldeth to them that he that goeth after the strange woman, goeth as an ox to the slaughter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks; till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. For, he says again, she hath cast down many wounded, yes, many strong men have been slain by her. Again, when he would dissuade from idleness, and inculcate the wisdom of a provident regard to the future, he says, Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Again, of dishonesty. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but every one that is hasty, only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity, tossed to and fro, of them that seek death. The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them. (A. Gibson, M. A.)

The personal element in temptation

Sin is not so dangerous as is the sinner. Sin is repellent; but the sinner may be winsome and attractive. The personal element in temptation is often the attractive element.

I. Sin sometimes clothes itself with personal authority. As of a master over a servant, or a father over a son. Temptation becomes strong when it enlists authority on its behalf.

II. Sin sometimes clothes itself with personal affection. Many of the forms of vice depend entirely upon friendship for their propagation. They would die a natural death if it were not for a mans friends.

III. Sin sometimes clothes itself with personal attractions. Consider mental attractions. The learned, the witty, the intellectual bad man, is a power for evil. There is a passing over of power from the man to his sin. The more attractions a man has personally the more ropes has sin to pull upon others with, and the more deceptive attire has sin to clothe itself with.

IV. Sin sometimes clothes itself with personal influence. Wealth gives a man influence in a community. So does social or official position. Young men should be taught to recognise sin promptly, no matter what it is clothed in. Christian manliness and independence are the safeguards against the personal elements in temptation. Dare to be right, even if sin should enlist all the powers of the world on its side. Dare to say, No. This is Christian heroism. (The Southern Pulpit.)

Youth counselled

The text refers to another state of society than that in which we live.

I. Life is a scene of real and daily temptation. Whether a man wishes it or not, he will be enticed. The mistake of many is that they expect to pass through life without being tried. They are not forearmed. There is not any perfect escape to be expected. It is the necessary discipline through which man must pass. The knowledge and experience of evil is just as inevitable as the knowledge and experience of any of the ordinary affairs of human life.

II. There is one period of life more specially exposed to temptation than others. At first sight the temptations of youth seem to be at variance with the general principle, that as a mans day is so shall his strength be. Youths strength and youths day often seem to be very disproportionate. It seems hard that youth should be so severely tried.

1. The generosity of youth is tried by the callousness and coldness of the world.

2. The guilelessness of youth is tried by severe lessons; friends fall off, and depart like swallows in the winter, when we seem to need them most.

3. The purity of youth is tried by having to go forth into the world of real and actual impurity, to make venture in its own strength against it all.

III. In society we find many persons whose chief delight it seems to be to throw temptations in the way of youth. No sooner does a man go astray than he strives to drag others with him. It is done–

1. By ridicule.

2. By sly suggestions.

3. By lending bad books and indulging in bad conversation. To overcome these temptations great decision of character is required. To get on in life requires the steady, unbroken bent of a strong will. There is no guarantee for real decision of character except in the fear of God. (W. G. Barrett.)

The dangers to which the young are exposed

Youth is the most interesting and important period of our moral probation for eternity. In it the young begin to be freed from that parental authority and discipline which restrain them from the practice of vice. They were then called, in some measure, to think, to judge, and to act for themselves. Then the principles early instilled into their minds are to be brought to the test of trial.

I. Young men may be exposed to the baneful influence of bad example, to the force of ridicule, and to the power of persuasion.

II. The young are enticed by setting before them splendid and seductive representations of the riches and enjoyment with which vice is accompanied.

III. The young are enticed to the commission of vice by concealing its native deformity. Sedulously endeavouring to diminish impressions of the danger with which it is attended.

IV. The young are enticed by misrepresentations of the Divine being and relations. Gods mercifulness is overpressed, and His justice and holiness are put out of sight. God will never let sin go unpunished. (John Hunter.)

The foe and the fight

I. The danger.

1. The sinners that entice from within are the mans own thoughts and desires. There is quite an army of these sinners in a young mans breast. Thoughts open up the way, and prepare a trodden path on which the man may follow. A gossamer thread is attached to an arrow and shot through the air unseen, over an impassable chasm. Fixed on the other side, it is sufficient to draw over a cord; the cord draws over a rope, the rope draws over a bridge, by which a highway is opened for all comers. Thus is the gulf passed that lies between the goodly character of a youth fresh from his fathers family and the daring heights of iniquity on which veteran libertines stand. From the brink on this side the youth darts over a thought which makes itself fast to something on these forbidden regions. Deeds will quickly follow when the way is prepared.

2. The sinners that entice from without are fellow-men, who, having gone astray themselves, are busy leading others after them. The deed most characteristic that the father of lies ever did was to lead others after him into sin. An evil-doer has a craving for company in his wickedness. By a natural necessity, the licentious recruit among the ranks of the virtuous, the drunken among the ranks of the sober. It is a power of nature that is taken and employed to enslave men. Men are gregarious. The principle of association is implanted in their nature, and is mighty, according to the direction it gets, for good or evil. This great power generally becomes a ready agency of ill.

II. The enticements. These are manifold. As addressed to well-educated, well-conducted youths, they are always more or less disguised. The tempter always flings over at least his ugliest side some shred of an angels garment. Few young men who have enjoyed a religious education come to a sudden stand, and at once turn their back upon God and godliness. Most of those who do fall diverge at first by imperceptible degrees from the path of righteousness. The importance of the ancient rule, Obsta principiis (resist the beginnings), can never be overrated. Watch the beginnings of evil. High in the list of dangerous enticements stands the theatre. The custom of society encouraging the use of intoxicating drinks constitutes one of the most formidable dangers to youth in the present day. But we never yet met with a drunkard who either became one all at once or who designed to become one. In every case the dreadful demon vice has crept over the faculties by slow degrees, and at last surprised the victim.

III. The defence. Consent thou not. It is a blunt, peremptory command. Your method of defence must differ from the adversarys mode of attack. His strength lies in making gradual approaches; yours is a resistance, sudden, resolute, total. It is not by partial compliances and polite excuses that enticements are to be repelled. With such adversaries you are not obliged to keep terms. Much depends on the unfaltering, undiluted, dignified No of one who fears God more than the sneer of fools. The shortest answer is the best. The means of resisting may be found in–

1. Refinement of manners.

2. Profitable study.

3. Benevolent effort.

4. Improving company.

But though the society of the good is an instrument of protection not to be despised, it is still subordinate. There is another companion. There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You cannot fight the enticements of sinful pleasure in your own strength. Under the Captain of salvation you may fight and win. (William Arnot, D. D.)

Men each others tempters

There are two worlds from which temptation reaches us–the world in which we live, and the world below us. There are two classes of beings who act as tempters, devils and men. There is, however, but one class of characters; sinners alone can be tempters. We do not know how the first sin originated.

I. Look at the case supposed.

1. It is a common case. Sinners do entice. It is in the nature of sin to make men tempters one of another. The social character of mankind seems to involve this.

2. It is a serious case. Generally speaking, the tempters are stronger than the tempted. The tendencies of our human nature are in the direction of transgression. The principles of every sin are latent in us all. Those principles may be undeveloped because they have not been appealed to; but let an appeal be made, and they will be manifest. Temptation is presented to a nature more or less susceptible.

3. It is by no means a hopeless case. There is One who can be a refuge, a strength, and a present helper.

II. Look at the advice given. Consent thou not. Without consent the temptation cannot take effect, and without consent the temptation can do no real harm. If you do consent, be sure your sin will find you out. To consent now is to expose yourself to greater danger hereafter. If you consent to enticement to-day, it will be almost an impossible thing to refuse to-morrow. (S. Martin.)

Enticemerits and enticers

Some point is gained by regarding this as Solomons advice to his son Rehoboam, who probably was an only son, and certainly was brought up amidst the dangerous luxuries and flatteries of Eastern court life. One of his chief perils lay in evil companionships. The surface of society never tells the truth concerning it. It is strange to find Rehoboam warned of wild banditti (Pro 1:11-14). Illustrate from the Prince Hal of English history and common sentiment concerning such men as Robin Hood. Drinking, gambling, and impurity are the wild evils of our time, and the caution of the text applies to them.

I. Temptations must come. This is a necessary law for those who are placed on probation. Forms of enticement differ in different ages. In each age, in each setting of social circumstances, there is a lawless, self-indulgent side. There is in all young people a love of romance, and a high-spiritedness, which makes them delight in adventure; but selfishness and covetousness are the dispositions which most readily respond to enticements of social evil. None can hope to escape temptation, none should wish to escape it. There is no possible culture of moral character without such testing.

II. Sin lies in consenting to enticements. Personal consent is essential to sin. What advice can then be given to the young?

1. Do not put yourself in the way of temptation.

2. Meet enticement with simple refusal.

III. The character of an enticement is shown in the character of those who present it. We are often placed in difficulty by the disguises of temptation. Especially before we have gained life-experience. By the hands and the neck it does seem like Esau. By the talk it does seem a wise serpent. A fair judgment of it is often beyond our power, But judging those who offer the temptation is always possible. If a man is not a good man, you had better suspect what he wants you to do. If you know a man is good, you may begin with confidence in his advice. If sinners entice, it is always safe not to consent. If the good invite, it is always best to consent at once. God is the infinitely good One, and to His call and invitation instant and unquestioning response should be given. (Weekly Pulpit.)

Virtuous obstinacy

I. The tempters are called sinners. A sinner here is one who has himself gone out of the straight path of duty, and is now a wilful wanderer, aiming to draw others into his own dangerous course.

II. The way of tempting called enticing. Sometimes the enticement of flattery is employed; sometimes misrepresentation; sometimes allurement; sometimes the barest artifice. The most dangerous artifices are those that tend to shake the only sure foundations of moral obligation and responsibility.

III. How are these tempters to be dealt with? Parental authority and affection enforce the solemn charge. Call in reason to your aid. Call in reflection. Call in self-knowledge. Call in the solemn warnings of Gods holy oracles. Call in watchfulness and prayer. Covet the approbation of conscience. Stop to count the final cost. Let the sensual allure, let the unbelieving misrepresent, let the reckless scoff; but by the help of God, in the name of all that is virtuous and praiseworthy, for the happiness of your whole present life, in the aspiration after a life of perfect virtue and of perfect bliss, let your one decisive answer ever be, No. (J. Bullar.)

The enticements of sinners

Youth, neglected or corrupted, makes manhood despicable or vicious. The crimes of riper years multiply and embitter the infirmities and the sorrows of age. Beware of poisoning the youthful mind with false principles. Leave the rational powers gradually to unfold themselves. You may aid reason in its operations, but never let authority supply the place of conviction, nor cheek a passion, but by an argument level to the comprehension. This is the pernicious doctrine of the new philosophy, which is but another name for infidelity. Better advice is, watch the first dawnings of intellect. It begins to open sooner than most suspect. Its natural tendency is towards error. It belongs to you to inform and to direct it. Watch, with equal care, the first emotions of feeling and passion; their tendency is equally towards vice. Tell your children that virtue derives its chief and its only religious value from its conformity to the nature and will of God, and that vice is odious and detestable from its opposition to both.

I. Is it not strange the wicked should seek to entice others? That human nature is corrupted appears in the practice and the contagion of vice. Vice, the natural product of a tainted heart, first makes its appearance in the moral constitution; grows by indulgence, and is propagated by example.

1. Sinners are prompted to the seduction of others by natural impulse. It results both from their principles and their habits.

2. The wicked are led to seduction by a second motive. They feel a shame which they refuse to acknowledge; they are anxious to wear off this painful impression in their own minds, and divide the disgrace of their conduct in the opinion of mankind by the society of others.

3. Vice is also attended with fear. The man wants society in order to dissipate thought.

4. Vice, indeed, requires society either for its full enjoyment or the effectual accomplishment of its purposes.

5. Indefatigable is the kingdom of darkness in propagating itself.

6. Infernal influences may be necessary to account for the activity of the wicked in seduction.

II. The methods employed in the work of seduction. The efforts of the seducer are not systematic and uniform. They are accommodated to circumstances and tempers. You are not guiltless if you suffer yourselves to be seduced. No temptation amounts to a physical necessity of transgressing; neither sin nor sinners can prevail against you without your own inclination. Your most effectual weapon of defence is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, in connection with the other parts of the Christian armour. (David Birchan, D. L.)

Bad company

I. The company portrayed.

1. Lawlessness. Sinners (Pro 1:10; 1Jn 3:4). To sin is to sink.

2. Persuasiveness. Entice thee. The gilded trappings of many modern amusements, the gay apparel of fallen virtue, the promise of good to be enjoyed that never comes, are baits by which thousands are lured into sin.

3. Combination. Come with us (Pro 1:11). Combine, said a great politician, when speaking to a class of men who had a grievance which they wished to redress. So says the enemy of souls. In the ranks of the wicked hand joins in hand (Pro 11:21).

4. Cruelty. Let us lay wait for blood.

5. Cowardice. Let us lay wait. Cruelty and cowardice are often allied.

6. Selfishness (Pro 1:13). The emptying of other peoples houses is of no consequence so that they fill their own. It is said of Napoleon, that for every step he rose in greatness the head of another fell.

7. Sociability (Pro 1:14). This sounds pleasant enough; but what of the money to be put into the purse? Blood-money.

8. Activity (Pro 1:16). There is in the wicked an impulse which impels them to hurry into sin.

II. Thy counsel given.

1. Heed good advice (Pro 1:8). The voice of the tempter is powerless to him who listens reverently to the voice of God (Mar 1:11; Mar 1:26).

2. Learn to say, No (Pro 1:10).

3. Shun evil company (Pro 1:15). Evil companions, says one, first make us sad, and then they make us bad.

4. Keep away from the haunts of evil. Refrain thy foot. Some who would not associate with the ungodly frequent the places where the wicked congregate. They go to see, and in some cases as the result of seeing, fall to rise no more. The Swiss mules have a habit of going close to the edge of dangerous precipices. If men were as sure-footed in the path of life as are mules upon the mountains, they might do so too; but with natures prone to evil, it is safer to keep as far as possible from the place where danger is.

5. Cultivate true godliness. A godly character is a wall of defence which the worldly are often afraid to attack. (H. Thorne.)

Warning against the enticements of the wicked

I. The evil enticement mentioned in the text.

1. The wicked deed, it is promised, shall be done in secrecy and with concealment.

2. It is a bold and spirited act to which the young man is incited. The appeal is made to his pluck and love of adventure (Pro 1:12).

3. The allurement is held out of great spoil.

4. The offer of frank and jovial companionship.

II. The dissuasive warning of the text (Pro 1:10).

1. Consider the awful extremes to which your evil course may lead.

2. Consider how faithfully and plainly you have been warned.

3. The ruinous consequences of a wicked course. (T. G. Horton.)

Admonition to the young

I. Who they are against whose enticements the young are to be on their guard.

1. Such as have abandoned themselves to vice and crime. The gratification of devils is to have men as sinful and miserable as they are.

2. Those who, however moral in the eye of men, are yet destitute of godliness. It has always been the policy of the enemy of souls to lead men into the depths of iniquity by little and little. The drunkard, for example, is as sober, enlightened, industrious, respected in society, beloved in his own family as any other when Satan first approaches him. Now, were the destroyer of man at once to show to this individual the full picture of that beastliness and misery to which he intended soon to reduce him, there would still be a sufficiency of moral courage, of self-preservation, of human feeling in him to cause him to flee even with horror and with tears from the snare. But Satan is too cunning and too intent upon success. He has patience in mischief, and can exercise it long in order to gain a mighty end.

3. Those especially who are acquaintances or companions. The companionship of the young is usually formed by accidental circumstances, without thought or discrimination. Some become companions at school, some by neighbourhood, some by relationship, some by serving under the same master, or working in the same establishment.

4. Those also who are strangers. Alas! such is the moral condition of man that we must live in this world in a state of constant suspicion. It was by listening to a stranger that our first mother was deceived; and in the same way was the man of God, who had been sent from Judah to denounce the wrath of Jehovah against Jeroboam and his idolatrous altar at Bethel, betrayed into an act of fatal disobedience.

II. The nature of the enticements against which the young are here warned.

1. Sinners will entice them by their example.

2. Sinners will entice them by holding out false hopes and representations of enjoyment in the courses to which they allure them.

3. By misrepresenting or denying the truth of God.

4. By ridiculing their moral fears.

5. By appealing to the multitudes. We naturally hate singularity, and in nothing so much as in religion.

6. By flattering kindness and attention.

7. By pretensions to religion.

III. Illustrate and enforce the admonition, consent thou not.

1. It is only with their own consent that the young can be led astray. The guilt as well as the bitter consequences of their yielding to sin will rest with themselves.

2. To be ready to refuse their consent to the enticements of sinners, their hearts must be well established in regard to both the ways of sin and the ways of righteousness.

3. The young are to cherish in their minds a suspicion and terror of all who would entice them to sin.

4. Let them carry about with them habitually a fear of God and a sense of His presence.

5. Let them consider the extreme difficulty of entering into life. Instead of tampering with sin, and exposing ourselves to its snares, we would have enough ado to gain heaven though no such allurements lay in our path.

6. Let them ponder much and deeply the misery of those who are pursuing the pleasures of sin.

7. Let them keep steadily before their minds the terrors of the wrath that is to come.

8. Let them now give their consent to the invitations of Christ. (Joseph Hay, M.A.)

Counsel for the tempted

I. Temptation is inevitable.

1. The name of temptation is legion, for they are many, and yet one. The strongest agencies appear in human form–sinners, who are agents of the devil. They may be our companions. They may even call themselves our friends.

2. It is not a sin to be tempted.

II. The power of temptation. Its power lies in the word entice. Enticements are the bait on the devils hook. Pleasure is one of them. Seeing life is another. The love of liberty or of asserting independence is a powerful lure. The dread of being laughed at is a strong compulsion. Nobody will know is often the last inducement which subdues the will and silences the conscience.

III. The limits of temptation. Temptation is mighty, but it is not almighty. No one has power over our will so that we must yield.

IV. The way of escape. Consent thou not. Augustine traced the ways of the battle. They are Cogitatio, Imaginatio, Delectatio, Consensio. Consent is the final stage of a lost battle. It is the lowering of the flag before the enemy; the opening of the gates of the citadel of life.

V. Say no to the tempter, but say yes to Christ. He says, Lo, I am with you alway; I have prayed for you that your faith fail not; Take therefore the whole armour of God, etc. (John Reid, M. A.)

A courageous decision

In America there were some eight young men who went out one Sabbath morning along the hanks of the Potomac, and they were breaking the Sabbath and acting in a most outrageous way, when the bell of the village church rang out, and one of the young men stopped short and said, I must go to church. The others said, What dye mean? Youre surely not going to church? Yes, I am going. Oh, George is getting pious, and so he ought to be baptized, and here we are by the Potomac River, and we will baptize him by immersion. And so they were about to plunge him in the river, when he said, Stop one minute, boys, and then Im in your hands; but before you plunge me into the river, I want to tell you one thing. My mother was an invalid, and I never saw her out of bed, and when I was about to leave home and choose an occupation, she said to me, Now, George, after you are all ready to go, I want to see you in my room, and to give you my dying blessing, for I am certain I shall never see you again. Your father has not money enough to bring you home at the holidays, and I am very certain before you return I shall have left you for ever, so be sure and come. I went into my mothers room after I was ready, and she asked me if I would kneel down by the bedside, and I knelt down. I remember just how her hand looked. I remember the blue vein on the thin wasted hand as she put it out over me. Then she dropped it upon my head and said, This is my benediction. I will never see you again, and I want you to remember this: you will be out in the world, and there will be a great many temptations over you; but remember when sinners entice thee consent thou not. Now, said he, I am going to church. Well, they said, you mustnt go to church. He started; they followed, half in derision, half in earnestness. They came to the church door. They went in. That day the gospel was mighty in the heart of that young man. Then and there he yielded himself to God. Before many months had passed along, some from one kind of influence, some from another, but all those young men, had entered the kingdom of Christ. Six of them are in heaven, two of them are occupying high positions in the Church, and all because that young man dared to do his duty. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Let us lay wait for blood.—

The robber of Solomons time

The temptation against which the teacher seeks to guard his disciple is that of joining a band of highway robbers. At no period in its history has Palestine ever risen to the security of a well-ordered police system, and the wild license of the marauders life attracted, we may well believe, many who were brought up in towns. The vain men who gathered round Jephthah (Jdg 11:3), the lawless or discontented who came to David in Adullam (1Sa 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 there. The story of St. John and the young convert who became a robber, the most interesting of all apostolic traditions, may serve as another illustration. The history of many centuries (our own, e.g., in the popular traditions of Robin Hood and of Henry V.), presents like phenomena. The robber-life has attractions for the open-hearted and adventurous. No generation, perhaps no class, can afford to despise the warning against it. (Dean Plumptre.)

The robbers speech

I. Young men are in great danger of being drawn away to sinful courses. Because they have not that grounded experience that others have, nor are so able to look through shows into substances. Because they are wilful and headstrong, and will follow their own lusts, notwithstanding good mens persuasions.

II. Secrecy is great bait to wickedness. Because shame is a great bridle to keep men from open wickedness. Many are kept in by it whom no counsel will keep from evil ways. Because fear of punishment is a bit that keeps others from sin. Take heed of secret solicitations to secret evils.

III. Wicked men have many secret devices to bring their wicked designs to pass. As Esau (Gen 27:41), Jezebel (1Ki 21:9). It is their study day and night (Psa 36:4; Pro 4:16).

IV. Wicked men promise themselves success of their mischievous plots. They think their mine too deep for men to countermine, and look not to God, who can go beyond them. This shows us how deeply sin is rooted in sinful souls, so that they dare promise themselves good success, not only in lawful, but also in sinful affairs. (Francis Taylor.)

My son, walk not thou in the way with them.

Bad company

Hardly any young man goes to a place of dissipation alone. Each one is accompanied. No man goes to ruin alone. He always takes some one else with him. We may, in our places of business, be compelled to talk to and mingle with bad men; but he who deliberately chooses to associate with vicious people is engaged in carrying on a courtship with a Delilah, whose shears will clip off all the locks of his strength, and he will be tripped into perdition.

1. I warn you to shun the sceptic–the young man who puts his fingers in his vest and laughs at your old-fashioned religion, and turns over to some mystery of the Bible and says, Explain that, my pious friend–explain that; and who says, Nobody shall scare me; I am not afraid of the future. Alas! a time will come when the blustering young infidel will have to die, and then his diamond ring will flash no splendour in the eyes of Death as the grim foe stands over the couch waiting for his soul.

2. Again, I urge you to shun the companionship of idlers, There are men hanging around every store, and office, and shop who have nothing to do, or act as if they had not. Idleness is next door to villainy. Thieves, gamblers, burglars, shop-lifters, and assassins are made from the class who have nothing to do.

3. I urge you to avoid the perpetual pleasure-seeker. Look out for the man who always plays and never works. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Dissuasion from joining the robbers

The sum of all this advice is as if he had said, Oh, my son, sinners will entice thee with these or such like words and promises, and lay such snares for thy inexperienced youth; but remember that thou art my son, and not theirs, and therefore hast more reason to hearken to me, who speak to thee out of a fatherly affection. Hearken not, therefore, to their counsels, flatteries, or promises. Show thyself so strange to them that thou wilt not so much as enter into their way, much less walk into it.

I. Children should rather hearken to their parents good counsel than to others bad. Because they are more engaged to parents than to any other for life, education, pains, and means. Parents counsels are given in love, and are for their good.

II. Young men have need to labour for knowledge to discern between Good counsel and bad. Because they are often put to it. Young men stand, as Hercules in his dream, between virtue and vice, solicited by both. Because there are fair pretences for all sins. Gluttony is called the free use of the creature; drunkenness, good-fellowship; prodigality is called liberality; covetousness, thrift; lust is entitled love; pride goes for handsomeness. It needs a good touchstone to distinguish between gold and copper well gilt over. No less skill is needed to distinguish between real and apparent good. Weigh things by the light of reason and the light of Scripture.

III. Allurements to sin ape no excuse for sin. Because allurers have no power to compel. They may, and ought to be refused.

IV. Company excuses no man in his sins. Company cannot alter the nature of things. It cannot make good evil or evil good. There is choice of company; all company is not evil. Company may draw our corrupt nature to sin, but cannot excuse us for Sin.

V. Continuance, or walking in sin, is dangerous. It is the sign of a hard heart to continue in sin. The mouth of the conscience is stopped. It makes the heart more hard still. Custom will make a man not start at the greatest sins.

VI. The very entrance into sinful ways is full of danger, like a downfall–no stay till you come to the bottom. Keep out of evil ways, or get out quickly. (Francis Taylor.)

The pernicious effects of evil company

The condition and circumstances in which we are placed here are such that society is necessary to the happiness, if not to the very being, of mankind. Besides this necessity, which compels us to seek assistance from society, there is a natural inclination which strongly prompts us to it. Solomon, having observed this absolute necessity of friendship and society, and of what high importance it is to choose friends and companions rightly, hath, in this Book of Proverbs, given many rules concerning that choice, of which the text is one. Walk not in the way of sinners; enter not into any friendship with wicked men. I shall show the dangers of evil, and the advantages of good, company.

1. As the foundation of all, let me mention, first, the authority of the Holy Scriptures, choosing a few out of the many passages to this purpose with which the sacred writings abound. Make no friendship, saith Solomon, with an angry man, lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. To this purpose the prophet expostulates very sharply with Jehoshaphat concerning the alliance into which he had entered with Ahab, a wicked and idolatrous king: Shouldst thou love them that hate the Lord? There is something very strong and solemn in the adjuration used by St. Paul to the Thessalonians: Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly.

2. To this authority of Holy Scripture I add the confirmation of reason, to show that we ought to be careful in the choice of companions from this consideration, that the nature of a mans friends or company must be of great consequence to his well-being. And this appears from hence, because they always have an extraordinary influence, not only upon his own temper and behaviour, but upon all his chief concernments. Now, comfort in distress is one of the chief advantages that may be gained by friendship, and one of the principal ends proposed by it. But how can this be hoped for from any wicked person? However agreeable his temper may be to a mind at ease, however soothing his discourse to the ear of the prosperous, yet can it bring little comfort to a troubled spirit. Besides, the only support in adversity is religion, the firm belief of a wise and good Providence, directing all things to the best ends. And how is it possible for a man to administer comfort from this consideration who lives in rebellion against that great Being? or how can one who hath any love to religion delight in the company of him who disclaims or disregards it? Even our interest is injured by intimacy with wicked men; for being guided by their passions and sacrificing their most sacred obligations to their vices, they are inconstant and insincere, and likely to betray our interests who neglect and forfeit their own. Whereas, in conversing with the good man, there are many advantages. His known sincerity secures us from the anxiety of suspicion; the principles upon which he acts remove all fears of change in him. Reputation, it is evident, cannot be obtained by living in familiarity with wicked men. Friendship either finds or makes men alike; and the world justly supposes that we resemble those with whom we live in strict intimacy. For this reason nothing can be of greater use to our character than a close union with wise and good men. From what hath been said may be drawn some observations worthy of our attention and care.

1. We should fix in our minds a right sense of the great use which may arise to us all from society and mutual converse.

2. All among us who may be considered in the different relations of parents or masters ought to be careful, not only for ourselves, but for those who are committed to our charge or dependent upon us, in the choice of companions.

3. We should labour to acquire those good qualities which are most proper to fit us for receiving and giving improvement by company. Such as candour and ingenuousness of mind, by which we are brought readily to acknowledge our own mistakes and to do justice to the perfections or pre-eminence of another. Such, likewise, is humility, a virtue which makes us inclined to listen and learn. We should also study to bring advantage to company, as well as receive from it; to which end we should establish a persuasion of our truth, honesty, and good-nature. (J. Lawson.)

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.–

A warning against evil associations

In things temporal the knowledge of peril leads naturally to the avoidance of it. The parallel of the text implies the existence of danger, under the simile of the spreading of the net, and develops the character of the safeguard, viz., consciousness of the purpose for which the net is spread. Three sources from which the dangers of young people specially arise: evil associations, false principles, and a perverse and wicked heart. The majority of young men in the world consist of the sceptical, who despise religion; the sensual, who hate it; and the indifferent, who neglect it. The sceptical or philosophical young man is one who has read much, but reasoned little. His philosophy consists in perplexing and unsettling what others believe rather than in propounding anything rational of his own. He affects a thorough contempt of the old tracks and beaten paths, and disclaims all views of religion that do not afford scope for human reason. There is a second class of tempters who leave the intellect untouched, but who do the work of the enemy, and spread nets for the soul by means of appetites and lusts. Its aim is to make the most of time as it passes, to drain the cup of pleasure while yet it remains within our grasp, to resolve the existence of man into the gratification of sense, and leave futurity, which must be, and eternity, which may be, to shift for themselves. There is yet a third class of evil associates or tempters, by whom snares are spread for the soul, who do not pride themselves on their sensuality, like the second, or on their infidelity, like the first, who literally care for none of these things. These are persons who consider religion as a thing decent and proper enough for those who have time to spare, such as children and servants, but account it only the occasional concern of men devoted to study or engaged in business.

1. The antidote for the subtle poison insinuated by the infidel is to be found in the just consideration of Christs atonement.

2. The antidote to the allurements of the sensual is the just consideration of Christs example.

3. The most effectual antidote to the stealthy and subtle poison of the companionship and example of the indifferent is the just appreciation of the promises of Christ. Until the infidel can observe the brightness of Christs glory; until the sensualist can sully the purity of Christs holiness; until the worldling can demonstrate the fallacy of Christs promises, safety may always be found by looking unto Jesus, by looking unto Him in our hours of need. (Thomas Dale, M.A.)

Persuasions and dissuasions

In vain. So our translation and some others read it. Some take it to be in vain in regard of the bird, which will take no warning, but will fly to the meat, though it fall into the net. So will thieves go on till they come to the gallows, notwithstanding examples of others hanged before, or counsels of friends. Others apply it to the young man himself, as if Solomon had said, If birds have wit to see and avoid snares, thou, my son, being a reasonable creature, shouldst much more see the danger of these evil mens counsels.

I. Variety of reasons are needful to dissuade from evil, Because of our private unbelief; because of our positive unbelief; because of mens different dispositions.

II. Reasons brought to confirm truth must be solid ones. Because nothing but truth should come from an informer (teacher). Reasons ought not only to be true, but to bear up all truths. How can a man think to persuade others by that which does not persuade himself?

III. There is a world of injustice in the world. Men have different humours and affections. We must be just in the midst of an unjust generation.

IV. Wicked men have cunning devices to do mischief. To expedite the business the sooner, that they may quickly effect their desire, and to remove all impediments. Take heed of ungodly mens plots. Use the doves innocency, but with the serpents subtilty. (Francis Taylor.)

Warned by seeing

Early in the morning I went out with a fowler to catch wild pigeons. We hastened through the gorge of the mountain. We spread out our net, covering up the edges of the net, as well as we might, with the branches of trees, so that the fowls of the air might not discover it. We arranged the call-bird; its feet fast, its wings flapping, so as to invite all the fowls of the air to come and lie there. Then we retired into a booth of branches, and waited for the birds to come. In the far heights we saw a flock of birds approach. They came nearer and nearer, and lower and lower, until they were just able to drop into the net, when they suddenly darted away. We were disappointed. We waited, and after a while saw another flock of birds come nearer and nearer, and lower and lower, until just the moment when they were about to drop into the net, suddenly they darted away. I said to the old fowler, What is the reason of this? Let us examine the thing. So we went out, and we found that, by the flutter of a tree-branch, part of the net had been exposed, so that the birds, coming near, had seen their danger and had escaped. And when I saw that, I said to the old fowler, That reminds me of a passage of Scripture: Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Traps for men

There are two classes of temptations–the superficial and the subterraneous–those aboveground, those underground. If a man could see sin as it is, he would no more embrace it than he would embrace a leper. I want to point out the insidious temptations that are assailing more especially our young men. The only kind of nature comparatively free from temptation, so far as I can judge, is the cold, hard, stingy, mean temperament. What would Satan do with such a man if he got him? Satan is not anxious to get a man who, after a while, may dispute with him the realm of everlasting meanness. It is the generous young man, the ardent young man, the warm- hearted young man, the social young man that is in especial peril.

1. The first class of temptations that assault a young man is led on by the sceptic. He will not admit he is an infidel or atheist. Oh, no! he is a free- thinker; he is one of your liberal men; he is free and easy in religion.

2. The second class of insidious temptations that come upon our young men is led on by the dishonest employer.

3. Temptations to drink. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Moral traps

I. Sin lays traps for souls. Sin has woven a net and laid it along the path of life. This net is wrought of diverse materials, such as sensuality, avarice, ambition. Traps are adjusted for men of every mental type, of every period in life, in every social grade.

II. These traps must be exposed. The fowler conceals his net. Sin works insidiously. It takes advantage of mens circumstances, ignorance, and inexperience. The work of the true philanthropist is to expose the traps.

III. These traps bring ruin to their authors. They lay wait for their own blood. Retribution overtakes them. If they escape violence themselves, the Nemesis pursues them. Their schemes may seem to prosper here, but justice tracks their steps, and their ruin is inevitable. (David Thomas, D.D.)

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain.—

Greed of gold

Midas, the Phrygian king, asked a favour of the gods, and they agreed to grant him whatever he should desire. The monarch, overjoyed, resolved to make the favour inexhaustible. He prayed that whatever he touched might be turned into gold. The prayer was granted, and bitter were the consequences. Whatever the poor king touched did turn to gold. He laid his hand upon a rock, and it became a huge mass of gold of priceless value; he clutched his oaken staff, and it became in his hand a bar of virgin gold. At first the monarchs joy was unbounded, and he returned to his palace the most favoured of mortals. Alas for the short-sightedness of man! He sat at table, and all he touched turned in mockery of his wish to gold–pure, solid gold. Then the conviction came rushing upon his humbled mind, that he must perish from his grasping wish–die in the midst of plenty; and remembering the ominous saying he had heard, The gods themselves cannot take back their gifts, he howled to the sternly smiling Dionysius to restore him to the coarsest, vilest food, and deliver him from the curse of gold.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 10. If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.] al tobe, WILL-not. They can do thee no harm unless thy will join in with them. God’s eternal purpose with respect to man is that his will shall be free; or, rather, that the will, which is essentially FREE, shall never be forced nor be forceable by any power. Not even the devil himself can lead a man into sin till he consents. Were it not so, how could God judge the world?

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Sinners; eminently so called, as Gen 13:13; Psa 1:1; 26:9; such as sell themselves to work all manner of wickedness; particularly thieves, and robbers, and murderers, as appears from the next verses, as also oppressors and cheaters, by comparing this with Pro 1:19.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10-19. A solemn warning againsttemptation.

enticeliterally, “openthe way.”

consent . . . notSinis in consenting or yielding to temptation, not in being tempted.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

My son, if sinners entice thee,…. Endeavour to seduce thee from thy parents, and draw thee aside from them, from listening to their instructions, advice, and commands; and make use of all plausible arguments to persuade thee to join with them in the sins they are addicted unto, and are continually employed in: for this is not to be understood of such who are sinners by nature, and through infirmity of the flesh, as all men are; but of notorious sinners, who are guilty of the grossest enormities, who live in sin, and give up themselves to work all manner of wickedness; sin is their trade and business, and the constant course of their lives; they are hardened, impudent, and daring, and not content to sin themselves, but do all they can to draw in others; and to preserve youth from filling into such bad company is this exhortation given in this tender, affectionate, and moving manner; next to the fear of God, and regard to parents, is this caution given to shun the company of wicked men, which young men are liable to be drawn into, and is of fatal consequence;

consent thou not; yield not to their persuasions, listen not to their solicitations, show no liking and approbation of them, assent neither by words nor deeds; do not say “thou wilt”; say “I will not”, and abide by it; be deaf to all their entreaties, and proof against all their persuasions.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The general counsel of Pro 1:9 is here followed by a more special warning:

My son, if sinners entice thee

Consent thou not.

The

(Note: The accent Pazer over the has the force of Athnach.)

(my son) is emphatically repeated. The intensive from (signifies men to whom sin has become a habit, thus vicious, wicked. ( Pi. of , to open) is not denom., to make or wish to make a ; the meaning, to entice (harmonizing with ), obtains from the root-meaning of the Kal, for it is related to it as pandere ( januam ) to patere : to open, to make accessible, susceptible, namely to persuasion. The warning 10b is as brief as possible a call of alarm back from the abyss. In the form (from , to agree to, to be willing, see Wetstein in Job, p. 349) the preformative is wanting, as in , 2Sa 19:14, cf. Psa 139:20, Ges. 68, 2, and instead of (= , 1Ki 20:8) is vocalized not (cf. Pro 11:25), but after the Aram. (cf. ); see Gen 26:29, and Comment. on Isaiah, p. 648; Gesen. 75, 17.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Parental Admonitions.

      10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.   11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:   12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:   13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:   14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:   15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:   16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.   17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.   18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.   19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

      Here Solomon gives another general rule to young people, in order to their finding out, and keeping in, the paths of wisdom, and that is to take heed of the snare of bad company. David’s psalms begin with this caution, and so do Solomon’s proverbs; for nothing is more destructive, both to a lively devotion and to a regular conversation (v. 10): “My son, whom I love, and have a tender concern for, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” This is good advice for parents to give their children when they send them abroad into the world; it is the same that St. Peter gave to his new converts, (Acts ii. 40), Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Observe, 1. How industrious wicked people are to seduce others into the paths of the destroyer: they will entice. Sinners love company in sin; the angels that fell were tempters almost as soon as they were sinners. They do not threaten or argue, but entice with flattery and fair speech; with a bait they draw the unwary young man to the hook. But they mistake if they think that by bringing others to partake with them in their guilt, and to be bound, as it were, in the bond with them, they shall have the less to pay themselves; for they will have so much the more to answer for. 2. How cautious young people should be that they be not seduced by them: “Consent thou not; and then, though they entice thee, they cannot force thee. Do not say as they say, nor do as they do or would have thee to do; have no fellowship with them.” To enforce this caution,

      I. He represents the fallacious reasonings which sinners use in their enticements, and the arts of wheedling which they have for the beguiling of unstable souls. He specifies highwaymen, who do what they can to draw others into their gang, v. 11-14. See here what they would have the young man to do: “Come with us (v. 11); let us have thy company.” At first they pretend to ask no more; but the courtship rises higher (v. 14): “Cast in thy lot among us; come in partner with us, join thy force to ours, and let us resolve to live and die together: thou shalt fare as we fare; and let us all have one purse, that what we get together we may spend merrily together,” for that is it they aim at. Two unreasonable insatiable lusts they propose to themselves the gratification of, and therewith entice their pray into the snare:– 1. Their cruelty. They thirst after blood, and hate those that are innocent and never gave them any provocation, because by their honesty and industry they shame and condemn them: “Let us therefore lay wait for their blood, and lurk privily for them; they are conscious to themselves of no crime and consequently apprehensive of no danger, but travel unarmed; therefore we shall make the more easy prey of them. And, O how sweet it will be to swallow them up alive!” v. 12. These bloody men would do this as greedily as the hungry lion devours the lamb. If it be objected, “The remains of the murdered will betray the murderers;” they answer, “No danger of that; we will swallow them whole as those that are buried.” Who could imagine that human nature should degenerate so far that it should ever be a pleasure to one man to destroy another! 2. Their covetousness. They hope to get a good booty by it (v. 13): “We shall find all precious substance by following this trade. What though we venture our necks by it? we shall fill our houses with spoil.” See here, (1.) The idea they have of worldly wealth. They call it precious substance; whereas it is neither substance nor precious; it is a shadow; it is vanity, especially that which is got by robbery, Ps. lxii. 10. It is as that which is not, which will give a man no solid satisfaction. It is cheap, it is common, yet, in their account, it is precious, and therefore they will hazard their lives, and perhaps their souls, in pursuit of it. It is the ruining mistake of thousands that they over-value the wealth of this world and look on it as precious substance. (2.) The abundance of it which they promise themselves: We shall fill our houses with it. Those who trade with sin promise themselves mighty bargains, and that it will turn to a vast account (All this will I give thee, says the tempter); but they only dream that they eat; the housefuls dwindle into scarcely a handful, like the grass on the house-tops.

      II. He shows the perniciousness of these ways, as a reason why we should dread them (v. 15): “My son, walk not thou in the way with them; do not associate with them; get, and keep, as far off from them as thou canst; refrain thy foot from their path; do not take example by them, not do as they do.” Such is the corruption of our nature that our foot is very prone to step into the path of sin, so that we must use necessary violence upon ourselves to refrain our foot from it, and check ourselves if at any time we take the least step towards it. Consider, 1. How pernicious their way is in its own nature (v. 16): Their feet run to evil, to that which is displeasing to God and hurtful to mankind, for they make haste to shed blood. Note, The way of sin is down-hill; men not only cannot stop themselves, but, the longer they continue in it, the faster they run, and make haste in it, as if they were afraid they should not do mischief enough and were resolved to lose no time. They said they would proceed leisurely (Let us lay wait for blood, v. 11), but thou wilt find they are all in haste, so much has Satan filled their hearts. 2. How pernicious the consequences of it will be. They are plainly told that this wicked way will certainly end in their own destruction, and yet they persist in it. Herein, (1.) They are like the silly bird, that sees the net spread to take her, and yet it is in vain; she is decoyed into it by the bait, and will not take the warning which her own eyes gave her, v. 17. But we think ourselves of more value than many sparrows, and therefore should have more wit, and act with more caution. God has made us wiser than the fowls of heaven (Job xxxv. 11), and shall we then be as stupid as they? (2.) They are worse than the birds, and have not the sense which we sometimes perceive them to have; for the fowler knows it is in vain to lay his snare in the sight of the bird, and therefore he has arts to conceal it. But the sinner sees ruin at the end of his way; the murderer, the thief, see the jail and the gallows before them, nay, they may see hell before them; their watchmen tell them they shall surely die, but it is to no purpose; they rush into sin, and rush on in it, like the horse into the battle. For really the stone they roll will turn upon themselves, Pro 1:18; Pro 1:19. They lay wait, and lurk privily, for the blood and lives of others, but it will prove, contrary to their intention, to be for their own blood, their own lives; they will come, at length, to a shameful end; and, if they escape the sword of the magistrate, yet there is a divine Nemesis that pursues them. Vengeance suffers them not to live. Their greediness of gain hurries them upon those practices which will not suffer them to live out half their days, but will cut off the number of their months in the midst. They have little reason to be proud of their property in that which takes away the life of the owners and then passes to other masters; and what is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? For then he can enjoy the world no longer; much less if he lose his soul, and that be drowned in destruction and perdition, as multitudes are by the love of money.

      Now, though Solomon specifies only the temptation to rob on the highway, yet he intends hereby to warn us against all other evils which sinners entice men to. Such are the ways of the drunkards and unclean; they are indulging themselves in those pleasures which tend to their ruin both here and for ever; and therefore consent not to them.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Beware of Enticement to sin

Pro 1:10-19

Verses 10-14 warn against evil companions and their enticements to sin, particularly the offer of a quick route to excitement, pleasure, and power by ignoring the laws of God and society which forbid such, Gen 39:7; Gen 39:10-12; Exo 20:12-15; 2Sa 13:11; Psa 62:10; Ecc 7:26.

Verses 15-19 warn of serious consequences of yielding to such excitements. They, are a trap as surely as that which ensnares a foolish bird, Vs. 7; a trap which may cost one’s life, or even the soul, Vs. 18-19; Mar 8:36-37. God will surely bring the sinner to judgment, 1Sa 16:7; Ecc 11:9; Ecc 12:13; Rom 6:23.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Pro. 1:10. Entice thee, lay thee open. Miller here reads if sinners would make a door of thy simplicity, afford thou no entrance.

Pro. 1:17. Some interpret this verse as referring to the godly who escape the snares laid for them, others to the wicked, who, not so wise as the bird, plunge themselves into ruin by plotting against the good. Then the blood and lives of Pro. 1:18 refer to the blood and life of the sinner.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 1:10-19

ENTICEMENT TO SIN AND EXHORTATION AGAINST YIELDING TO IT

I. Youth will certainly be tempted.

1. Because he is in an evil world. In this world everything that possesses life is in danger of losing it. The tree is liable to have its root eaten by the worm, the smaller creatures in the animal world are beset with danger from those above them in size and strength, the fish in the sea is ever in danger of the hook or the net, the bird of the fowlers snare, the forest king of the hunters gun. Man, in respect to his mere bodily existence, is surrounded by influences antagonistic to the preservation of his animal life. And this danger often presents itself in the form of enticement. The crumbs lure the bird into the trap, the bait tempts the fish to bite the hook. A smooth sea and bright sunshine in the morning tempts the fisherman to the voyage upon the treacherous deep, which becomes his grave in the evening. Moral life is not excepted from this rule. Wherever the youth finds himself in the world he will be tempted, because he is everywhere surrounded by influences which war against his soul life.

2. Because it is an ordination of God. The Divine Ruler has ordained that men shall suffer temptation. There are things in this world which are the common lot of all men, from the highest to the lowest. Disease and death come alike to the proudest monarch and his meanest subject, to the man of highest intellect and to the most unlettered savage. And temptation is also an ordained heritage of man. Not even the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, was exempted from this rule.

3. Because it is necessary for the formation of moral character. The seaman needs to come into conflict with the stormy winds and the rough waves of the ocean if he is to become a skilful mariner. The very effort which he puts forth to overcome them makes him more fit for his calling. So men must have temptation in order to test their powers of resistance; the struggle against sin, if successful, strengthens the moral character.

II. The elements which form the strength of the temptation.

1. The secresy promised by the tempter. Let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent, etc. No one commits a crime against his fellow man, without an underlying hope that he will not be found out; he even persuades himself that it is hidden from God. They say, how doth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? (Psa. 73:11).

2. The hope of gain. Advantage of some kind is supposed to be the fruit of every sin. That which the tempter uses here is an increase of wealth. We shall find all precious substance, etc. This temptation is most common. A man is persuaded that by a very slight risk he can make a large fortune, that the deed will never come to light, and these two persuasions have been the ruin of hundreds.

3. The number of the tempters. Here several are represented as tempting one. Come with us. Numbers always influence us even when no persuasion is used. Men are naturally inclined to do what the many do, to go with the multitude. There is an undefined feeling that safety is with the majority, or, at least, that the being involved with many others lessens personal responsibility. This element of temptation is very powerful in a world where the many go in at the gate which leadeth to destruction, and few walk in the way which leadeth unto life (Mat. 7:13-14).

III. The way of escape from the tempter.

1. Calling to mind his filial relation. My son. It is a great help to a youth who is in danger of being drawn away from his steadfastness in the path of virtue to call his parents to mind. His fathers instructions and example, his mothers love and prayers, the grief that his fall would bring upon them will, if reflected on, be a means of escape from the tempters snare. The thought that he is a son ought to be sufficient to keep him from straying.

2. A consideration of the certain end of sinners. Those who promise themselves and others secresy shall be taken openly. The bird will not be decoyed into the net if he sees it spread, the trap must be laid in secret if it is to be successful. But sinners go on in sin although they are forewarned by God, by their own consciences, by the law of human society, and by the experience of others what the end will be. Be sure your sin will find you out, is written, not only in the book of God, but within us and around us. The young man is to bear in mind that they are fools who tell him there is gain to be had by sin. Those who seek to take life in order to enjoy the property of others, or in any way to wrong their fellows for their own fancied gain, shall themselves, like Haman, be hanged upon the gallows which they have made. Let the youth reflect up the sad histories of those who now fill our convict-prisons, and he will feel that it is indeed true that evil-doers lay wait for their own blood.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

Pro. 1:10.

I. A supposition implied, that sinners will entice. Sin is of so virulent and malignant a nature, that it tainteth the whole air about it and filleth it with infection, and there is no safety to be found within its neighbourhood without the blessed antidotes of piety and carefulness. And the sinner will take as much pains to pervert his companions, as the Jews did to make proselytes, and with the same fatal design and consequence, viz., to make them twofold more the children of hell than themselves. For since the good have all other advantages, and vastly outweigh them in intrinsic worth, they will endeavour to come as near a level as they can by making up in number what they want in value. Besides, it silences in some measure the loud alarms of their own consciences, when many join with them in their vicious performances, and the approbation of others, by complying with their practices, lulleth them to sleep in a dull security.

II. A caution subjoined, Consent thou not. To which end

1. Consider the baseness and danger of consenting. We must sacrifice our reputation, render ourselves unfit for the company of men of worth, and exchange the glorious liberty of the children of God for that of vassals of iniquity. We must call in question the existence of God, and expose ourselves to that avenging hand which will lie heavy upon sinners to all eternity.
2. Take some plain and short directions to secure yourself against their enticements. Repel the first attempts upon your character. When that which is wrong is spoken or acted in your presence, do not suffer yourself to give it inward approbation. Withdraw from such society as soon as possible. Seek Gods assistance.Nicolas Brady, D.D.

This verse, in brief compass and transparent terms, reveals the foe and the fight. With a kindness and wisdom altogether paternal, it warns the youth of the danger that assails him, and suggests the method of defence.Arnot.

Carry a severe rebuke in thy countenance, as God doth (Psa. 80:16). To rebuke them is the ready way to be rid of them.Trapp.

Pro. 1:11-13. Two unreasonable and insatiable lusts they propose to gratify.

1. Their cruelty. They thirst for blood, and hate those that are innocent, and never gave them any provocation. Who could imagine that human nature should degenerate so far that it should ever be a pleasure to one man to destroy another?

2. Their covetousness. What, though we venture our necks, we shall fill our houses with spoil. See here

(1) the idea they have of worldly wealth. They call that precious substance which is neither substance nor precious; it is a shadow and vanity, especially that which is gotten by robbery. It is the ruin of thousands, that they overvalue the wealth of this world.
2. The abundance which they promise themselves. Those who trade with sin promise themselves mighty bargains. But they only dream that they eat, the housefuls dwindle into scarcely a handful.Henry.

Pro. 1:11. The warning, as such, is true for all times and countries, but has here a special application. The temptation against which the teacher seeks to guard his disciple is that of joining a band of highway robbers. At no period in its history has Palestine ever risen to the security of a well-ordered police system, and the wild licence of the marauders life attracted, we may well believe, many who were brought up in towns (Jdg. 11:3; 1Sa. 22:2), and 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 there. The history of many countries (our own, e.g., in the popular Traditions of Robin Hood and Henry V.) presents like phenomena. The robber-life has attractions for the open-hearted and adventurous. No generation, perhaps no class, can afford to despise the warning against it. Without cause may mean in vain, and receive its interpretation from the mocking question of the tempter: Doth Job serve God for nought? The evil-doers deride their victims as being righteous gratis, or in vain.Plumptre.

If sinners have their come, should not saints much more? Should we not incite, entice, whet, and provoke one another, rouse and stir up each other, to love and good works? (2Pe. 1:13; Heb. 10:24; Isa. 2:3; Zec. 8:21.)Trapp.

Pro. 1:12. The force of the verse noteth the allurement of wickedness from the cleanly despatch of it, so that nothing appeareth of the doing of it.Jermin.

We will be as Sheol, as Hades, as the great underworld of the dead, all-devouring, merciless. The destruction of those we attack shall be as sudden as that of those who go down quickly into Sheol. (Num. 16:30; Num. 16:33)Plumptre.

Pro. 1:13. Wickedness has always been a very bragging boaster. These sinners make a brag like that which the devil made to Christ: All these things will I give thee. Covetousness is a strong chain to draw men on to wickedness.Jermin.

Pro. 1:14. The first form of temptation is addressed to the simple lust of greed. The second, with more subtle skill, appeals to something in itself nobler, however easily perverted. The main attraction of the robber-life is its wild communism, the sense of equal hazards and equal hopes. To have one purse, setting laws of property at nought among themselves, seems almost a set-off against their attacks on the property of others.Plumptre.

Pro. 1:15. God will not take the wicked by the hand. (Job. 8:20.) Why, then, should we?Trapp.

The affairs of this life are the highways of the King of Heaven; thou mayest walk in the ways of them, but not with the wicked. It is an argument of a wicked man but to company with the wicked. We judge evil accompanyings to be next to evil deeds.Jermin.

Pro. 1:16. They may talk of walking, of walking in pleasures and delights, to get thee to walk with them. But, though, from what thou findest at first, thou little thinkest what will be the end, yet let me tell thee that it is to evil the journey tendeth; to that it will quickly come, for their feet run unto it. What shame is it that evil should be so pursued after!Jermin.

Pro. 1:17. These men are plotting with their eyes wide open. The verse teaches the great doctrine of deliberateness to ruin. Men go to hell when they expect it; at least, they go when it is a trap to them, of which they know the setting. They go open-eyed on into the gin.Miller.

The great net of Gods judgments is spread out, open to the eyes of all, and yet evil-doers, wilfully blind, still rush into it.Plumptre.

Pro. 1:18. These couriers of hell, who carry the despatches of the devil, cannot run faster to the hurt of others than they do to their own mischief; they cannot make more haste to shed the blood of others than they do to shed their own blood.Jermin.

Pro. 1:19. These ways are certainly some of the worst. The persons described are of the baser sort; the crimes enumerated are gross and rank. Yet when these apples of Sodom are traced to their sustaining root, it turns out to be greed of gain. The love of money can bear all these. When this greed is generated, like a thirst in the soul, it imperiously demands satisfaction wherever it can most readily be found. In some countries of the world it still retains the old-fashioned iniquity which Solomon has described. In our country, though the same passion domineer in a mans heart, it will not adopt the same method, because it has cunning enough to know that it will not succeed. Dishonesty is diluted, and coloured, and moulded, to suit the taste of the times. But the ancient and modern evil-doers are reckoned brethren in iniquity, despite the difference in the costume of their crimes. This greed, when full-grown, is coarse and cruel. It has no bowels. It marches right to its mark, treading on everything that lies in the way. If necessary it taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Covetousness is idolatry. The idol delights in blood. He demands and gets a hecatomb of human sacrifices.Arnot.

Midas, the Phrygian king, asked a favour of the gods, and they agreed to grant him whatever he should desire. The monarch, overjoyed, resolved to make the favour inexhaustible. He prayed that whatever he touched might be turned to gold. The prayer was granted, and bitter were the consequences. What the king touched did turn to gold. He laid his hand upon the rock and it became a huge mass of priceless value; he clutched his oaken staff, and it became in his hand a bar of virgin gold. At first the monarchs joy was unbounded, and he returned to his palace the most favoured of mortals. Alas for the shortsightedness of man! He sat at table, and all he touched turned to goldpure solid gold. The conviction rushed upon him that he must perish from his grasping wishdie in the midst of plenty; and remembering the ominous saying he had heard, The gods themselves cannot take back their gifts, he howled to the sternly smiling Dionysius to restore him to the coarsest, vilest food, and deliver him from the curse of gold.Biblical Treasury.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

TEXT Pro. 1:10-19

10.

My son, if sinners entice thee,

Consent thou not.

11.

If they say, Come with us,

Let us lay in wait for blood;
Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

12.

Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

13.

We shall find all precious substance;

We shall fill our houses with spoil;

14.

Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;

We will all have one purse:

15.

My son, walk not thou in the way with them;

Refrain thy foot from their path:

16.

For their feet run to evil,

And they make haste to shed blood.

17.

For in vain is the net spread

In the sight of any bird:

18.

And these lay wait for their own blood;

They lurk privily for their own lives.

19.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;

It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

STUDY QUESTIONS OVER 1:10-19

1.

Why will sinners entice innocent people (Pro. 1:10)?

2.

What are the three big words in Pro. 1:10?

3.

What does lurk privily mean (Pro. 1:11)?

4.

What does Sheol mean (Pro. 1:12)?

5.

Is the second statement in Pro. 1:12 different from its first, or is it a restatement of it?

6.

To what extent will selfishness go (Pro. 1:13)?

7.

What does cast thy lot in Pro. 1:14 mean?

8.

Pro. 1:15 is but an enlargement of what three important words already given?

9.

What two words in Pro. 1:16 show their eagerness to do wrong?

10.

What is the connection of Pro. 1:17 with this section of material?

11.

Why for their own blood and lives (Pro. 1:18)?

12.

Does sin end up the way it was planned (Pro. 1:19)?

PARAPHRASE OF 1:10-19

1014.

If young toughs tell you, Come and join usturn your back on them! Well hide and rob and kill, they say; Good or bad, well treat them all alike! And the loot well get! All kinds of stuff! Come on, throw in your lot with us; well split with you in equal shares.

1519.

Dont do it, son! Stay far from men like that, for crime is their way of life, and murder is their specialty. When a bird sees a trap being set, it stays away, but not these men; they trap themselves! They lay a booby trap for their own lives. Such is the fate of all who live by violence and murder. They will die a violent death.

COMMENTS ON 1:10-19

Pro. 1:10. This verse breaks down into two parts: sinners attempt to mislead a young man and what he should do about it. Be assured that the world (sinners) will put pressure on every person to join them. Oh, the rosy picture that they can paint in the fantasies of a young persons mind! And to be different from the world would be to be out of steps, odd, and all that a young person does not really want to be. And so the invitation becomes enticement, and their urging becomes irresistible temptation. The only way a young person (or anybody else) can resist and overcome these pressures from the outside is by that which he has on the inside (parental instruction that has become personal conviction, faith in God, reverential fear, etc.). Oh, how Solomon pleads with his son, Consent thou not. What important three words they are! This is what Joseph did when urged by Potiphars wife: he refused and said, How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? (Gen. 39:8-9). Oh, for more young men with the conviction, native honesty, and courage of Joseph! Daniel did the same (Dan. 1:8); so did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. 4:17-18). We, too, are commanded to abstain from the worlds evil: Eph. 5:7; Eph. 5:11; 1Th. 5:22; 2Ti. 2:19; Jas. 1:27.

Pro. 1:11. Often throughout the book Solomon warns against both evil men and evil women (both are mentioned in Pro. 2:12-17). The evil men are wicked oppressors out to get ill-gotten gain, and the evil women are immoral adulteresses. This chapter 1 warning is concerning going in with evil men to become an oppressor. This verse and the ones following put the enticement of Pro. 1:10 into words. Notice that the people to be hurt by them wouldnt deserve it (the innocent), nor would they expect or suspect it (Let us lay in wait…let us lurk privily).

Pro. 1:12. Sheol is Hebrew, and Hades is Greek for the place of departed spirits. This verse employs Hebrew parallelism in which the two statements mean the same thing; that is, Sheol and pit are the same; alive and whole are the same; and swallow and go down are the same. Death is spoken of as going down into the pit in Psa. 28:1 : Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I call: My rock, be not thou deaf unto me; Lest if thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Sheol is pictured in Pro. 30:15-16 as one of four things personified as never satisfied, that never says, It is enough. So, it was no small damage that these evil men planned to inflict and in which they were inviting the young man to participate.

Pro. 1:13. This is the part that was luring them onthe hope of gain. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (see 1Ti. 6:10). As they passed from one robbery and murder to another, all they were thinking about was themselves. The innocent (Pro. 1:11) had worked to obtain the precious substance; the innocent had not found it amassed in one place as his robbers wanted to. They had patiently seen it grow and accumulate though hard work and saving ways; the robbers were wanting to fill their houses with it immediately.

Pro. 1:14. Cast thy lot among us meant that he would decide to go with them, he would trust his future and his outcome to their way of doing. We will all have one purse meant that he would share equally with them. But people who do will lie and cheat and rob and kill others might be untrue to their promise to him too. This was their final appeal to him to join them. What would his decision be?

Pro. 1:15. Oh, the concern of the father at this point! He realizes it is a decision-time for his son. Will he fall for their line, or will he go the way he has been taught from youth? He pleads, My son, walk not thou in the way with them, and restated for emphasis and additional appeal: Refrain thy foot from their path. This verse is really an enlargement upon Consent thou not in Pro. 1:10. Other verses on this subject: Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked (Psa. 1:1); Enter riot into the path of the wicked, And walk not in the way of evil men (Pro. 4:14); 1 have refrained my feet from every evil way (Psa. 119:101).

Pro. 1:16. A good reason for Solomons not wanting his son to take up with such toughs. They run to evil; they make haste to shed blood. Ever notice that man is quick to get into iniquity, but he wants to take his time to get out of it? The reverse should be true. Two other passages say much the same thing: Their feet run to evil, they make haste to shed innocent blood (Isa. 59:7); Their feet are swift to shed blood (Rom. 3:15).

Pro. 1:17. The wicked are represented as lurking privily for the innocent. It is in this way alone that they can hope to destroy them and take their substance; for if their designs were known, proper precautions would be taken against them (Clarke). In other words, Son, cant you see what they are doing? Dont get caught!

Pro. 1:18. Their intention would be to hurt others, and they do for awhile, but in time justice catches up with them, and they pay with their lives! The father would have his son view his final outcome from the beginning, and the enticement to join up with the oppressors would not be so strong.

Pro. 1:19. Other passages also teach the sorrows and losses to be reaped by those greedy of gain: He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house (Pro. 15:27); …which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1Ti. 6:10). Instead of getting, there is losing. We note too that the important (his own life) is lost trying to gain the unimportant (material gain).

TEST QUESTIONS OVER 1:10-19

1.

What are the two parts of Pro. 1:10?

2.

What sin usually characterized evil men of Proverbs (Pro. 1:11)?

3.

Cite the three parallels in Pro. 1:12.

4.

What does 1Ti. 6:10 say about the love of money (Pro. 1:13)?

5.

Comment on the two parts of Pro. 1:14.

6.

Why is the father so earnest in Pro. 1:15?

7.

What should men reverse (Pro. 1:16)?

8.

What should the son be able to see that evil men are actually doing when they paint such a rosy picture (Pro. 1:17)?

9.

What would keep the enticement from being so strong (Pro. 1:18)?

10. What do oppressors get, and what do they lose (Pro. 1:19)?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(10) If sinners entice thee.A warning against taking part in brigandage, a crime to which Palestine was at all times peculiarly exposed, from the wild character of its formation, and from its neighbourhood to predatory tribes, who would invade the country whenever the weakness of the government gave them an opening. The insecurity to life and property thus occasioned would provide a tempting opportunity for the wilder spirits of the community to seek a livelihood by plunder.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

10. If sinners entice The teacher now proceeds to admonish his pupil against being seduced by bad men into evil courses. He must not consent or yield to them. Comp. Pro 24:1-2; Gen 3:16; Numbers 22; 1Ki 13:14-19; 1Ki 13:24.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Compelling Need To Avoid The Enticements Of Sinners Motivated By Greed ( Pro 1:10-19 ).

Solomon now vividly portrays the dangers of greed and violence, two things which often go together. The one who responds to God’s wisdom will avoid such enticements. The ideas are presented in chiastic fashion:

A My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent (Pro 1:10).

B If they say, Come with us, Let us lay in wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause (Pro 1:11).

C Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those who go down into the pit (Pro 1:12).

D We will find all precious substance, we will fill our houses with spoil (Pro 1:13).

E You shall cast your lot among us, we will all have one purse (Pro 1:14).

E My son, do not walk in the way with them, refrain your foot from their path (Pro 1:15).

D For their feet run to evil (Pro 1:16 a),

C And they make haste to shed blood (Pro 1:16 b).

B For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird, yet these lay wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives (Pro 1:17-18).

A So are the ways of every one who is greedy of gain; It takes away the life of its possessors (Pro 1:19).

In A sinners seek to entice, and in the parallel it is greed that entices. In B they lie in wait for blood, and lurk secretly for the innocent, and in the parallel they lie in wait for their own blood, and lurk secretly for their own live. In C they want to bring men to death, and in the parallel they make haste to shed blood. In D they seek ill-gotten gain, and in the parallel their feet run to do evil. Centrally in E they call on the young man to follow them and in the parallel wisdom tells him not to walk in their paths.

Pro 1:10-14

‘My son, if sinners entice you,

Do not consent,

If they say, Come with us,

Let us lay wait for blood,

Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause,

Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those who go down into the pit,

We will find all precious substance,

We will fill our houses with spoil,

You shall cast your lot among us,

We will all have one purse.’

Others besides their fathers and mothers will seek to ‘guide’ them. And to them they are not to give consent. For in contrast to the instruction and discipline of father and mother, will be the influence of some of their contemporaries more their own age, who will seek to lead them astray. These will entice them by seeking to arouse their greed, and by offering close companionship. They are described as ‘sinners’, that is people who have wrong intent, and ‘miss the mark’ and turn men in the wrong path.

Peer pressure and gang cultures were just as prevalent in those days as they are in some quarters today, and we must remember that a ‘gang’ (peer group) today might equally be a group of sophisticated people united in a common bond. They can equally get up to, and inculcate, mischief. Thus there is the warning against mixing with and ganging up with the wrong people. There will always be those who seek to ‘entice us’ and lead us astray from God’s instruction, and encourage us to be dishonest, and even violent, and they are to be avoided.

The people described here were the kind of people who would encourage violence with the aim of dishonest gain, lying in wait for innocent people in order to rob them. The intensity of their evil is brought out by the vividness of the description. They delighted in sending people into Sheol and ‘the pit’. Sheol was the shadowy underworld of the grave to which the dead went, the great unknown, the place of darkness and forgetfulness (see Psa 6:5; Isa 14:9-15; Eze 32:21; Eze 32:27). ‘The pit’ was another way of describing it. They were places which were empty of life. They were thus by their actions robbing people of their futures as well as of their goods.

Their aim was dishonest gain, and the motive was greed. They wanted to ‘fill their houses with spoil’. They wanted to possess possessions. But an equally special appeal lay in the comradeship arising from all sharing in the one pot, of all being one together. By heeding the ‘advice’ of their peers they would be ‘accepted’ among their contemporaries. ‘You shall cast your lot among us.’ Each would participate in the excitement of the division of the spoils by lot. ‘We will all have one purse’. They would be all one in purpose, and in the sharing of the spoils. All this would make them feel that they were ‘independent’ of parental control and that they ‘belonged’ in the group. But they would in practise simply have replaced the godly authority of their parents, who were concerned for their good, with the ungodly authority of the group whose only concern was dishonest gain. The principle equally applies of course to any attempt to gain from others by underhand means, and any gathering together which leads to wrongdoing. Today men and women simply do it in a more sophisticated way. It is equally possible to destroy a man by ruining his reputation, or holding him up to ridicule.

‘Let us lay wait for blood.’ Note the emphasis on blood in the passage. ‘They scurry to shed blood’ (Pro 1:16). They ‘lay wait for their own blood’ (Pro 1:18). They were bloodthirsty days, and Solomon is using an extreme example to get over his point. Violent death was a common experience in days when men went about armed and there were no police. It is significant that in the prologue it is violence and illicit sex that are the two major sins inveighed against. Times have not changed.

Pro 1:15-16

‘My son, do not walk in the way with them,

Refrain your foot from their path,

For their feet run to evil,

And they scurry to shed blood.’

As a surrogate father he pleads with ‘his son’ not to ‘walk in the way with them’, in other words not to ‘walk in the counsel of the ungodly’ (Psa 1:1). Rather he is to refrain from following in their path. He is to resist their enticements. And that is because their feet run to do evil. Thus we are to beware of allowing our contemporaries to lead us into what comes short of the best. In mind here is an extreme example. They are so eager to shed blood that they scurry along in order to do so. Others may be eager for lesser sins, as the book will go on to show, but their ways are still to be avoided.

Pro 1:17-18

‘For in vain is the net spread,

In the sight of any bird,

But these lay wait for their own blood,

They lurk secretly for their own lives.’

The writer then points out the folly of all this. He ‘considers their end’ (Psa 73:17). For, he says, what they are doing will in the end rebound on themselves. They are in essence setting a trap for themselves. They ‘lay in wait for blood’ (Pro 1:11), but do not realise that they are in essence ‘lying in wait for their own blood’. They ‘lurk secretly for the innocent’ (Pro 1:11) but do not thereby realise that they are lurking secretly for their own lives. They fail to recognise that inevitably their actions will bring evil consequences for themselves.

The point behind the illustration is that, very foolishly, they are by their actions setting a trap for themselves, or throwing a net over themselves, in full view of themselves. (Inscriptions picturing hunters creeping up on birds in order to cast a net over them have been discovered in Egypt). They may be hidden from others in their hiding place, but they are not hidden from themselves. They are fully aware of what they are doing. How foolish therefore they are, for only the foolish person lays a snare or casts a net in full view, so that it is obvious, with the consequence that he does it in vain. A sensible person, when seeking to ensnare birds, does not make his net or his presence obvious. He disguises both so that the bird will not know they are there. (Indeed, that is why these people wait for their victims in ambush. They do it so that they will not be discerned). But what they foolishly do not realise is that they are in fact laying an ambush which will finally trap themselves, and one thing that is sure is that they cannot hide from themselves. They are setting what will finally trap them in full view of their own eyes. Thus they are being doubly foolish. They are doing wrong and they are behaving as no sensible person would do. And the end of their behaviour can only be their own loss when in some way or other they are brought to account. They are by their actions in fact ‘lying in wait for their own blood’.

Pro 1:19

‘So are the ways of every one who is greedy of dishonest gain,’

It takes away the life of its owners.’

And why do they behave in this way? It is because they are greedy to obtain wealth though wrong methods. Their hearts are full of covetousness and greed. They will do anything for money. As Paul would later point out, ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil’ (1Ti 6:10).

But such an attitude can only in the end take away their lives (as they themselves have taken away the lives of others). It takes away their lives daily as it results in a spiritually impoverished life and a destruction of their finer feelings. And it will destroy them in the end because they will be brought into judgment. Thus unknown to them greed will take away their lives from them, even though outwardly they may appear to prosper from it. We can compare the Psalmist’s words concerning such people, ‘then I considered their latter end’ (Psa 73:17). We all need to consider, not only what we do, but also its final end.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Call of the Wicked – On this journey there are always two voices pulling at our ears, the voice of the fool and the voice of wisdom. As Christians, we can describe these two voices as the outward voice of man, and the inward voice of our conscience and the Holy Spirit. Even from a child, as we are learning to obey our parents (Pro 1:8-9), there are foolish children clinging to us with enticements to follow them.

In contrast to the call of wisdom to pursue its virtues (Pro 1:20-33), the call of the fool is greedy for gain, “So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain”(Pro 1:19). This passage is a warning against greed, or covetousness. The sinner’s goal is not to benefit those who answer his call. Rather, his goal is for personal gain. Out of the abundance of his mouth the sinner speaks and reveals his objective, that of personal gain.

The Tempter himself, Satan, enticed Jesus with these same words (Luk 4:6-7).

Luk 4:6-7, “And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

Peter tells us in his second epistle that the world has been made corrupt through the lust that dwells within the heart of a fallen humanity.

2Pe 1:4, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

James writes in his epistle that the spirit that dwells within man “lusts to envy.”

Jas 4:5, “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?”

Thus, the voice of the wicked can be recognized by its vices that are manifestations of manipulation (Pro 1:10), cruelty (Pro 1:11-12) and a greedy heart (Pro 1:13-14):

1. He entices and manipulates (Pro 1:10)

2. He wants to do things his way (Pro 1:11)

3. He wants secrecy and not openness (Pro 1:11)

4. He pursues injustice (Pro 1:11)

5. He speaks of taking and not giving, of death and not life (Pro 1:12)

6. He pursues earthly things rather than Godly virtues (Pro 1:13)

7. They make promises of which they have no intent to deliver (Pro 1:14)

When someone yields to the enticing voice of the sinner, we would say today, “He got in with the wrong crowd!” Why would a sinner be interested in befriending someone? Remember that even a sinner cannot succeed in this life without relationships with others. Although these relationships are short-term and much abused by the sinner, he still must pursue them in order to reach his greedy desires. Therefore, he is out hunting for someone to entice and in the end to simply for his own selfish gain.

Now such a corrupt person lacks the ability to sustain a relationship with someone else over a long period of time. Once this relationship requires that they give and submit on their part, once it requires a sacrifice and a loss, they are compelled to end this relationship and seek a new one; for their purpose is personal gain and not the well-being of others. They may give a little up front to make you think that this is a giving relationship, but it is all for show to manipulate others. The owner of the nightclubs does not care about your well-being. The tobacco companies do not want you to know that cigarettes cause cancer and kill their victims. They simply want your substance, and they laugh all of the way to the bank while destroying the lives of their victims.

Today, I am amused by the many voices of the enticer. I used to be confused before I renewed my mind with the Word of God. This was because this voice of enticement lured me, it attracted me and grabbed my interest, and my unrenewed mind thought that there was some truth and relevance to those words. Now, I can discern between the voice of wisdom and the words of enticement much better, and it now amuses me to see how foolish the world is to yield to such messages.

The Message of the Sinner Describes a Highway Robbery – In Pro 1:10-14 the words of the sinner describe the common method of that day for highway robbery to occur. This is well illustrated in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luk 10:30-37). This is still a common way to get gain in undeveloped nations. Robbers lay wait beside roads and attack innocent travelers.

Pro 1:10  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

Pro 1:10 Word Study on “entice” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “entice” ( ) (H6601) means, “to spread out, to open, to be roomy.” Strong says this primitive root word literally means, “to open, to be roomy.” In a mental or moral sense, it is used figuratively to mean, “to be made simple or to delude.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 28 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “entice 10, deceive 8, persuade 4, flatter 2, allure 1, enlarge 1, silly one 1, silly 1.” From this same primitive root comes the much-used word “simple” ( ) (H6612), which is found 15 times in the book of Proverbs of its 19 Old Testament uses.

Pro 1:10 Comments – Even while a young man is hearing the call of the fool, his mind is reflecting back upon the words of his parents (Pro 1:8-9). This is why the words of the parents in Pro 1:8-9 immediately precede the call of the fool in Pro 1:10. He has been taught to “consent” to his parents will all of his young life. Now, he has to learn to say no. This is not easy for many teenagers.

Pro 1:11  If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Pro 1:11 Comments – They propose mischief and harm to the innocent. We can contrast the hidden secrets of the wicked seen in this verse (lay in waitlurk privily) with the openness of divine wisdom seen in Pro 1:20-21.

Pro 1:20-21, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,”

Pro 1:12  Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

Pro 1:12 Comments – They propose destruction.

Pro 1:13  We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

Pro 1:13 Comments – Just as Solomon declares his rewards for those who follow him (Pro 1:2-6), so does the sinner declare what he considers true riches. Although Solomon possesses his wealth, the sinner is only hoping for his wealth. The sinner is deceived into pursuing material wealth, while Solomon presents divine virtues as the greater riches. Solomon has the power and authority to deliver his wealth to those who heed his voice, while the sinner fails to realize that he has no power to fulfill his promises to those whom he deceives. Those who follow the path of wisdom are sure to receive their rewards, while those who pursue the sinner fall into ruin, never realizing a reward.

A fool perceives earthly possessions as being “precious” because he is blind to the value of true wisdom. In contrast, God says in the book of James that this “precious substance” will become “corrupted treasures” that shall be a witness against the owners on Judgment Day (Jas 5:1-3). Yet, these evil men will hazard their very lives, and some of them will lose their lives, for what they perceive as precious substance. Everything that we possess originates from the dirt; our clothes, the homes we live in and the cars we drive, everything. It all is made of the dirt that we walk on, but in the deception of their hearts, they call it “precious.”

Jas 5:1-3, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and our garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

These enticers propose greedy gain in order to entice their victim, but, little do they know how God’s divine laws of justice will quickly diminish this spoil (Pro 13:11). The first proverb given in this book (Pro 10:2-3) will deal with this issue.

Pro 13:11, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”

Pro 10:2, “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.”

Pro 1:14  Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

Pro 1:14 Comments – The lure of giving you some of the booty is used as an enticement to join them.

Pro 1:15  My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

Pro 1:15 Comments – Do not go the least distance with them, none whatsoever (2Co 6:17).

2Co 6:17, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”

Pro 1:16  For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Pro 1:16 Comments – Pro 1:16 reveals how the evil man has come into bondage to such acts of evil that he literally runs to it with no control over his God-given ability to reason the consequences of his wicked deeds. The wicked is in bondage to material possessions rather than he being in control of his possessions. Therefore, the next verse illustrates an animal’s God-given ability to avoid danger in contrast the evil man’s blindness to fall into an obvious trap.

Pro 1:17  Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

Pro 1:17 Comments – When a bird sees a trap, he has enough sense to stay away. Thus, the following verse says that a fool does not have even the sense that God gave to the animal kingdom.

Such traps are strongholds of sin that bind a person in its trap until it brings death. Only the table of blessings that is offered by wisdom can let a man free. This table of blessings includes the bread and the wine that represent the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture References – Note similar verses regarding animal traps:

Pro 6:5, “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.”

Pro 7:23, “Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.”

Ecc 9:12, “For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”

Isa 51:20, “Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.”

Jer 5:26, “For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.”

Pro 1:18  And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

Pro 1:18 Comments – Pro 1:18 tell us that these wicked men lay a trap for their own lives. They are more stupid than animals because they are captured by the very trap that they have built. They have deceived many souls, but their own soul have they deceived the most. The first chapter of Romans tells us that God will turn them over to a reprobate mind so that they will never be able to see their deception. This is God’s way of judging them. Isaiah also describes His backslidden people as being more stupid than these beasts:

Isa 1:3, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”

In the phrase “they lurk privily for their own lives,” wisdom uses the enticer’s method of lurking privily for the innocent to describe his method of destruction, so that he reaps his own judgment (Pro 1:11).

Pro 1:11, “If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause :”

Pro 1:19  So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Pro 1:19 Comments – Pro 1:19 says that the very unrighteous mammon that this sinner has gathered will be used to take away his life (note Gal 6:8).

Gal 6:8, “ For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

James said it this way in his epistle:

Jas 5:1-3, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.”

On the Day of Judgment, the very riches that they have stolen will be used to eat their flesh as fire. The greater the riches, the greater the fire of judgment.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Pro 1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

Ver. 10. If sinners entice thee. ] To an ill bargain; to a match of mischief, as Ahab did Jehoshaphat, as Potiphar’s wife would have done Joseph; and truly, that he yielded not, was no less a wonder, than that those three worthies burnt not in the midst of the fiery furnace. But as the sunshine puts out fire, so did the fear of God the fire of lust.

Consent thou not. ] But carry a severe rebuke in thy counteuance, as God doth. Psa 80:16 To rebuke them is the ready way to be rid of them.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

sinners. Hebrew. chata’. App-44.

Consent thou not: Illustrations: Joseph (Gen 39:9, Gen 39:10); prophet (1Ki 13:8, 1Ki 13:9); Jehoshaphat (1Ki 22:49, contrast 2Ch 18:2; 2Ch 20:35-37); Joash (2Ch 24:17, 2Ch 24:18).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Pro 1:10-19

Pro 1:10-19

REGARDING THE AVOIDANCE OF EVIL COMPANIONS

“My son, if sinners entice thee,

Consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us,

Let us lay wait for blood;

Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

We shall find all precious substance;

We shall fill our house with spoil;

Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;

We will all have one purse:

My son, walk not thou in the way with them;

Refrain thy foot from their path:

For their feet run to evil,

And they make haste to shed blood.

For in vain is the net spread

In the sight of any bird:

And these lay wait for their own blood;

They lurk privily for their own lives.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;

It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.”

“If sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Pro 1:10), “There are two Hebrew words for `sinners,’ `peccantes’, `sinners’ as a generic designation of the human race, in the sense that, `All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’ (Rom 3:23), and `peccatores’, those who sin knowingly, habitually, willfully and maliciously, who are given over entirely to iniquity, and who persuade others to follow their wicked example. It is this second word for sinners that is used here (Pro 1:11).

“Come with us” (Pro 1:11). Here is the basic appeal that wicked gangs have always made to the young. “The appeal is to that instinctive desire to be `one of the gang.’ It is the gregarious instinct, a basic ingredient in all human life. It is that `sense of belonging’ that is able to create and sustain the youthful wicked gangs that flourish in every great city. It is that same instinct that aids in forging and maintaining Christian fellowship in a church; and successful churches are diligent to make sure that every member, (especially new ones), is made to feel absolutely secure as `really belonging’ to the group.

“Let us swallow them up as Sheol” (Pro 1:12). “This is an allusion to the fate of Korah and his company (Num 16:30-33), who were swallowed up in the earth following their rebellion.

“Cast thy lot among us; we will all have one purse” (Pro 1:14). This meant, “Be a “pater conjuratus” (a sworn brother), and thou shalt have an equal share of all the spoil.” Promises such as these effectually blind the eyes of the young and ignorant; and little do they understand that becoming a `sworn brother’ of a gang of outlaws is an extremely foolish and deadly mistake. All such gangs, as the notorious Mafia, for example, enforce their control by malicious and wholesale murder. The stupid fool who consents to accept their invitation is not only signing his own death warrant; but at the same time, he is accepting for himself the most brutal and demanding discipline imaginable, with no possibility whatever of ever getting out of it, except in a coffin! Being accepted as ‘one of the gang’ in a fellowship like that constitutes an abject surrender to Satan himself.

“In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird” (Pro 1:17). “Even a bird can look after its own interest better than those fools who blindly enter such a fellowship with the wicked.” That blindness is pointed in Pro 1:18.

“They lay wait for their own blood … lurk privily for their own lives” (Pro 1:18). “All history confirms the truth of these words.

The metaphor of the net spread for birds is variously interpreted, but we have followed the text as it appears here. Cook pointed out that, “Another view is that, `In vain is the net spread openly before the birds’, thus teaching that the warning, open and visible as it is, is in vain. The birds still fly in! Thus the great net of God’s judgment is spread out for all to see; yet the doers of evil, willfully blind, still rush in to their own destruction. Of course, either way the metaphor is interpreted, the truth is illustrated.

Pro 1:10. This verse breaks down into two parts: sinners attempt to mislead a young man and what he should do about it. Be assured that the world (sinners) will put pressure on every person to join them. Oh, the rosy picture that they can paint in the fantasies of a young persons mind! And to be different from the world would be to be out of steps, odd, and all that a young person does not really want to be. And so the invitation becomes enticement, and their urging becomes irresistible temptation. The only way a young person (or anybody else) can resist and overcome these pressures from the outside is by that which he has on the inside (parental instruction that has become personal conviction, faith in God, reverential fear, etc.). Oh, how Solomon pleads with his son, Consent thou not. What important three words they are! This is what Joseph did when urged by Potiphars wife: he refused and said, How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? (Gen 39:8-9). Oh, for more young men with the conviction, native honesty, and courage of Joseph! Daniel did the same (Dan 1:8); so did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan 4:17-18). We, too, are commanded to abstain from the worlds evil: Eph 5:7; Eph 5:11; 1Th 5:22; 2Ti 2:19; Jas 1:27.

Pro 1:11. Often throughout the book Solomon warns against both evil men and evil women (both are mentioned in Pro 2:12-17). The evil men are wicked oppressors out to get ill-gotten gain, and the evil women are immoral adulteresses. This chapter 1 warning is concerning going in with evil men to become an oppressor. This verse and the ones following put the enticement of Pro 1:10 into words. Notice that the people to be hurt by them wouldnt deserve it (the innocent), nor would they expect or suspect it (Let us lay in wait…let us lurk privily).

Pro 1:12. Sheol is Hebrew, and Hades is Greek for the place of departed spirits. This verse employs Hebrew parallelism in which the two statements mean the same thing; that is, Sheol and pit are the same; alive and whole are the same; and swallow and go down are the same. Death is spoken of as going down into the pit in Psa 28:1 : Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I call: My rock, be not thou deaf unto me; Lest if thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Sheol is pictured in Pro 30:15-16 as one of four things personified as never satisfied, that never says, It is enough. So, it was no small damage that these evil men planned to inflict and in which they were inviting the young man to participate.

Pro 1:13. This is the part that was luring them on-the hope of gain. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (see 1Ti 6:10). As they passed from one robbery and murder to another, all they were thinking about was themselves. The innocent (Pro 1:11) had worked to obtain the precious substance; the innocent had not found it amassed in one place as his robbers wanted to. They had patiently seen it grow and accumulate though hard work and saving ways; the robbers were wanting to fill their houses with it immediately.

Pro 1:14. Cast thy lot among us meant that he would decide to go with them, he would trust his future and his outcome to their way of doing. We will all have one purse meant that he would share equally with them. But people who do will lie and cheat and rob and kill others might be untrue to their promise to him too. This was their final appeal to him to join them. What would his decision be?

Pro 1:15. Oh, the concern of the father at this point! He realizes it is a decision-time for his son. Will he fall for their line, or will he go the way he has been taught from youth? He pleads, My son, walk not thou in the way with them, and restated for emphasis and additional appeal: Refrain thy foot from their path. This verse is really an enlargement upon Consent thou not in Pro 1:10. Other verses on this subject: Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked (Psa 1:1); Enter riot into the path of the wicked, And walk not in the way of evil men (Pro 4:14); 1 have refrained my feet from every evil way (Psa 119:101).

Pro 1:16. A good reason for Solomons not wanting his son to take up with such toughs. They run to evil; they make haste to shed blood. Ever notice that man is quick to get into iniquity, but he wants to take his time to get out of it? The reverse should be true. Two other passages say much the same thing: Their feet run to evil, they make haste to shed innocent blood (Isa 59:7); Their feet are swift to shed blood (Rom 3:15).

Pro 1:17. The wicked are represented as lurking privily for the innocent. It is in this way alone that they can hope to destroy them and take their substance; for if their designs were known, proper precautions would be taken against them (Clarke). In other words, Son, cant you see what they are doing? Dont get caught!

Pro 1:18. Their intention would be to hurt others, and they do for awhile, but in time justice catches up with them, and they pay with their lives! The father would have his son view his final outcome from the beginning, and the enticement to join up with the oppressors would not be so strong.

Pro 1:19. Other passages also teach the sorrows and losses to be reaped by those greedy of gain: He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house (Pro 15:27); …which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1Ti 6:10). Instead of getting, there is losing. We note too that the important (his own life) is lost trying to gain the unimportant (material gain).

STUDY QUESTIONS – Pro 1:10-19

1. Why will sinners entice innocent people (Pro 1:10)?

2. What are the three big words in Pro 1:10?

3. What does lurk privily mean (Pro 1:11)?

4. What does Sheol mean (Pro 1:12)?

5. Is the second statement in Pro 1:12 different from its first, or is it a restatement of it?

6. To what extent will selfishness go (Pro 1:13)?

7. What does cast thy lot in Pro 1:14 mean?

8. Pro 1:15 is but an enlargement of what three important words already given?

9. What two words in Pro 1:16 show their eagerness to do wrong?

10. What is the connection of Pro 1:17 with this section of material?

11. Why for their own blood and lives (Pro 1:18)?

12. Does sin end up the way it was planned (Pro 1:19)?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Pro 7:21-23, Pro 13:20, Pro 20:19, Gen 39:7-13, Jdg 16:16-21, Psa 1:1, Psa 50:18, Rom 16:18, Eph 5:11

Reciprocal: Gen 39:8 – refused Exo 23:2 – follow Deu 13:8 – consent 1Ki 21:15 – Arise 2Ch 19:2 – Shouldest 2Ch 22:4 – they were his Job 21:16 – the counsel Psa 119:9 – shall Pro 1:8 – My son Pro 2:12 – deliver Pro 4:14 – General Pro 12:11 – he that followeth Pro 16:29 – General Pro 23:15 – My son Mar 14:11 – and promised Luk 23:51 – had not Eph 5:7 – General 1Th 2:11 – as Jam 3:6 – a world

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

Pro 1:10

There are two chief sources of temptation which Solomon indicates in these chapters, and which, when we have stripped off the figure or the accidental circumstances of age and time, are not less applicable to our days than to his.

I. The first is sensuality, figured and summed up in that repeated picture of the strange woman which flattereth with her tongue, which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

II. The other is that of evil companionship.You may see in chapter 2 the two distinguished very clearly and put as the two things from which wisdom, discretion, understanding, should preserve you.

Dean Wickham.

Illustration

The danger is, If sinners entice thee. There are enticers and enticements, the fowler and his snare. (1) The enticers of youth may be divided into two great classes: the internal and the external. The sinners that entice from within are the mans own thoughts and desires; the sinners that entice from without are fellow-men who, having gone astray themselves are busy leading others after them. (2) Among the enticements we may name: (a) the theatre; (b) the customs of society encouraging the use of intoxicating drinks.

The defence prescribed is, Consent thou not. It is a blunt, peremptory command. Your method of defence must be different from the adversarys mode of attack. His strength lies in making gradual approaches, yours in a resistance sudden, resolute, total.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Pro 1:10-14. My son, if sinners Sinners of any description; entice thee To sin, to commit any known iniquity, or to omit any known duty; consent thou not Yield not in any degree to their advice, persuasions, or solicitations, for why shouldest thou destroy thyself to gratify them? If they say, Come with us We are numerous, and strong, and sociable. Let us lay wait for blood That is, to shed blood. He does not intend to express their words, for such words would rather affright than inveigle one that was yet a novice in wickedness, but he signifies what was the true nature, and would be the consequence of the action, in which they wished the person they addressed to join them, and what lay at the bottom of their specious pretences. Let us lurk privily for the innocent For harmless travellers, suppose, and others that, suspecting no danger, are not prepared for opposition; without cause Though they have not provoked us, nor deserved this usage from us. This Solomon adds, to discover their malignity and baseness, and so to deter the young man from associating with them. Let us swallow them up as the grave Which speedily covers and consumes dead bodies. We shall do our work quickly, easily, and without fear of discovery. We shall find all precious substance As our danger is little, so our profit will be great. Cast in thy lot among us Or, rather, Thou shalt cast thy lot among us, that is, Thou shalt have a share with us, and that equally, and by lot, although thou art but a novice, and we are veterans. Let us all have Or, we will all have; one purse One purse shall receive all our profits, and furnish us with all expenses. So we shall live with great facility, and true friendship.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1:10 My son, {i} if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

(i) That is, the wicked who do not have the fear of God.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes