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ambush

Proverbs 1:10-19 (JDV).

Proverbs 1:10 My son, if sinners entice you, don’t be persuaded.
Proverbs 1:11 If they say — “Come with us! Let’s set an ambush and kill someone. Let’s attack some innocent person who does not deserve it!
Proverbs 1:12 Let’s gulp them down, like Sheol, whole, like those who go down to the Pit.
Proverbs 1:13 We’ll find all kinds of valuable property and fill our houses with plunder.
Proverbs 1:14 Throw in your lot with us, and we’ll all share the bag” —
Proverbs 1:15 my son, don’t travel that road with them or set foot on their path,
Proverbs 1:16 because their feet run toward evil, and they hurry to shed blood.
Proverbs 1:17 It is useless to spread a net where any bird can see it,
Proverbs 1:18 but they set an ambush to kill themselves; they attack their own throats.[1] Proverbs 1:19 Such are the paths of all who make profit unfairly; it takes the throats of those who own it.

[1] נֶפֶשׁ = throat, neck. Proverbs 1:18, 19; 2:10; 3:22; 6:26, 30, 32; 7:23; 8:36; 11:17, 25, 30; 12:10; 13:2, 3, 4, 8, 19, 25; 14:10, 25; 15:32; 16:17, 24, 26; 18:7; 19:2, 8, 15, 16, 18; 20:2; 21:10, 23; 22:5, 23, 25; 23:2, 7, 14; 24:12, 14; 25:13, 25; 27:7, 9; 28:17; 29:10, 17, 24; 31:6.

ambush

It sounds like there are some seriously unsavory gang members in Solomon’s time who only go around killing innocent people for profit. But a closer reading of this proverb shows that what the father is warning his son about is “all who make profit unfairly.” There are plenty of those kinds around in any age. What the father is telling his son is that such people are actually setting an ambush to kill themselves. To join them is suicide. They are on the wrong road.

LORD, keep us free from the pursuit of profit through cheating. Keep us off that path.