Proverbs 1:12

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) Alive.—Comp. the death of Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:30).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:10-19 Wicked people are zealous in seducing others into the paths of the destroyer: sinners love company in sin. But they have so much the more to answer for. How cautious young people should be! Consent thou not. Do not say as they say, nor do as they do, or would have thee to do; have no fellowship with them. Who could think that it should be a pleasure to one man to destroy another! See their idea of worldly wealth; but it is neither substance, nor precious. It is the ruinous mistake of thousands, that they overvalue the wealth of this world. Men promise themselves in vain that sin will turn to their advantage. The way of sin is down-hill; men cannot stop themselves. Would young people shun temporal and eternal ruin, let them refuse to take one step in these destructive paths. Men's greediness of gain hurries them upon practices which will not suffer them or others to live out half their days. What is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? much less if he lose his soul?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

i. e., "We will be as all-devouring as Sheol. The destruction of those we attack shall be as sudden as that of those who go down quickly into the pit." Some render the latter clause, and upright men as those that go down to the pit. "Pit" here is a synonym for Sheol, the great cavernous depth, the shadow-world of the dead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11-14. Murder and robbery are given as specific illustrations.

lay wait … lurk privily—express an effort and hope for successful concealment.

swallow … grave—utterly destroy the victim and traces of the crime (Nu 16:33; Ps 55:15). Abundant rewards of villainy are promised as the fruits of this easy and safe course.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As the grave; which speedily covers and consumes dead bodies. See Psalm 55:15 124:3. We shall do our work quickly, easily, and without fear of discovery.

Into the pit; into some deep pit, into which a traveller falls unawares, and is utterly lost, and never discovered.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave,.... The innocent person, and those that are with him, his servants; our gang is so numerous that we can very easily dispatch him and all his attendants, and bury them out of sight at once, as if they were swallowed up alive in a grave, and so no more to be seen or heard of; and consequently we shall be in the utmost safety and security, there being no traces of what is done, nor any left to make a relation of it, or to give any information of us, or to pursue us;

and whole, as those that go down into the pit; who though whole and in perfect health, shall in a moment be destroyed and cast into the pit, being first plundered of all the riches they have about them; for this swallowing them up alive and whole, which is an allusion to a beast of prey swallowing up another creature all at once, not only intends their cruelty in taking away life, but their rapaciousness in seizing upon their substance.

Geneva Study Bible

Let us swallow them up alive as the {l} grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

(l) As the grave is never satisfied, so the malice of the wicked and their cruelty has no end.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. the grave] or, Sheol, R.V. text, ᾅδης LXX., infernus Vulg.

whole] Some (as R.V. marg. even the perfect) give the Heb. word here the moral sense, which it has elsewhere. But both the parallelism and the force are better preserved by the rendering of A.V. and R.V. text. Let us make away with them in a moment in the full vigour of life, as though Hades should open her mouth and swallow them up (comp. Numbers 16:30; Numbers 16:33): yea, let us sweep them from the earth in perfect soundness, as completely as those who go down to the grave are swallowed up by it. The LXX. give a different turn (paraphrase, not translation) to the 2nd clause, ἄρωμεν αὐτοῦ τὴν μνήμην ἐκ γῆς, let us take away the remembrance of him from the earth, as though by whole they understood, wholly, leaving not the memory of him behind.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Let us swallow them up alive as the grave. A continuation of ver. 11, expanding the idea of bloodshed ending in murder, and showing the determination of the sinners to proceed to the most violent means to effect their covetous ends. The enticement here put before youth is the courage and boldness of their exploits (Wardlaw). The order of the words in the original is, "Let us swallow them up, as the grave, living," which sufficiently indicates the meaning of the passage. Alive; חַיִּים (khayyim), i.e. "the living," refers to the pronomiual suffix in נִבְלָעֵם (niv'laem), as in the Authorized Version and Zockler (cf. Psalm 55:15; Psalm 124:3). Umbreit and Hitzig are grammatically incorrect in connecting כִּשְׁאול (kish'ol) "as the grave," with "the living," and translating "like the pit (swallows) that which lives." The כִּ (ki) with a substantive, as here in kish'ol, is a preposition, said not a conjunction (see Gesenius, 'Lexicon'). It denotes a kind of resemblance, but does not introduce a coordinate sentence. The allusion is undoubtedly in the teacher's mind to the fate of Korah and his company (Numbers 16:30-33), and as in that case "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up" in the flush of life, so here the robbers say that they will as suddenly and effectively destroy their victims, בָּלַע (dala); from which niv'laem, in a figurative sense, means "to destroy utterly" (Geseuius). The change from the singular, "the innocent" (לְנָקִי, l'naki), to the plural in "let us swallow them up," is noticeable. Like the pit (כִּשְׁאול kish'ol); literally, like Sheol, or Hades, the great subterranean cavity or world of the dead. The all-devouring and insatiable character of sheol is described in Proverbs 27:20, where the Authorized Version translates "Hell (sheol) and destruction are never full," and again in Proverbs 30:15, where it (sheol, Authorized Version, "the grave") is classed with the four things that are never satisfied. Vulgate, infernus; LXX., ᾅδης. And whole, as those that go down into the pit. The parallelism of ideas requires that the word "whole" (תְּמִימִים, t'mimim) should be understood of those physically whole (see Mercerus, Delitzsch), and not in a moral sense, as the upright (Luther, Grief, Holden, Plumptre). The word is used in an ethical signification in Proverbs 2:21. Gesenius gives it the meaning of "safe, secure." Those that go down into the pit (יורדֵי בור, yorde vor); i.e. the dead. The phrase also occurs in Psalm 28:1; Psalm 30:4; Psalm 88:4; Psalm 143:7; Isaiah 38:18). The pit (בור, vor); or, the sepulchre, the receptacle of the dead, is here synonymous with sheol. The LXX. substitutes for the latter part of the verse, Καὶ ἄρωμεν αὐτοῦ τὴν μνήμην ἐκ γῆς, "And let us remove his memory from the earth." The robbers, by drawing a comparison between themselves and Hades and the grave, which consign to silence all who are put therein, imply their own security against detection. They will so utterly destroy their victims that none will be left to tell the tale (see Musset, in loc.). This, we know, is a fancied, and at the best only a temporary, security. Proverbs 1:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The first clause of this verse Hitzig translates: "as the pit (swallows) that which lives." This is untenable, because כּ with the force of a substantive (as instar, likeness) is regarded as a preposition, but not a conjunction (see at Psalm 38:14.). חיּים (the living) is connected with נבלעם, and is the accus. of the state (hâl, according to the terminology of the Arab. grammarians) in which they will, with impunity, swallow them up like the pit (the insatiable, Proverbs 27:20; Proverbs 30:16), namely, while these their sacrifices are in the state of life's freshness,

(Note: Only in this sense is the existing accentuation of this verse (cf. the Targ.) to be justified.)

"the living," - without doubt, like Psalm 55:16; Psalm 63:10; Psalm 124:3, in fact and in expression an allusion to the fate of the company of Korah, Numbers 16:30, Numbers 16:33. If this is the meaning of חיים, then תּמימים as the parallel word means integros not in an ethical sense, in which it would be a synonym of נקי of Proverbs 1:11 (cf. Proverbs 29:10 with Psalm 19:14), but in a physical sense (Graec. Venet. καὶ τελείους; Parchon as Rashi, בריאים ושלמים, vid., Bttcher, De Inferis, 293). This physical sense is claimed for תּם, Job 21:23, for תּם probably, Psalm 73:4, and why should not תמים, used in the law regarding sacrifices (e.g., Exodus 12:5, "without blemish") of the faultlessness of the victim, also signify such an one אשׁר אין־בּו מתם (Isaiah 1:6)? In the midst of complete external health they will devour them like those that go down to the grave (cf. Psalm 28:1; Psalm 88:5, with Isaiah 14:19), i.e., like those under whose feet the earth is suddenly opened, so that, without leaving any trace behind, they sink into the grave and into Hades. The connection of the finite with the accus. of place, Psalm 55:16, lies at the foundation of the genitive connection יורדי בור (with the tone thrown back): those that go down to the grave.