Proverbs 1:10

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" (Proverbs 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' (Romans 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."[13] It is this second word for sinners that is used here (Proverbs 1:11).

"Come with us" (Proverbs 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.'"[14] 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" (Proverbs 1:12). "This is an allusion to the fate of Korah and his company (Numbers 16:30-33),"[15] who were swallowed up in the earth following their rebellion.

"Cast thy lot among us; we will all have one purse" (Proverbs 1:14). This meant, "Be a "pater conjuratus" (a sworn brother), and thou shalt have an equal share of all the spoil."[16] 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" (Proverbs 1:17). "Even a bird can look after its own interest better than those fools who blindly enter such a fellowship with the wicked."[17] That blindness is pointed in Proverbs 1:18.

"They lay wait for their own blood ... lurk privily for their own lives" (Proverbs 1:18). "All history confirms the truth of these words."[18]

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."[19] Of course, either way the metaphor is interpreted, the truth is illustrated.