Proverbs 1:12
New International Version
let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

New Living Translation
Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave; let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death.

English Standard Version
like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

Berean Standard Bible
let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.

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

New King James Version
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, And whole, like those who go down to the Pit;

New American Standard Bible
Let’s swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, like those who go down to the pit;

NASB 1995
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

NASB 1977
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

Legacy Standard Bible
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, And whole, as those who go down to the pit;

Amplified Bible
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol (the place of the dead), Even whole, as those who go down to the pit [of death];

Christian Standard Bible
Let’s swallow them alive, like Sheol, whole, like those who go down to the Pit.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Let’s swallow them alive, like Sheol, still healthy as they go down to the Pit.

American Standard Version
Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And we will swallow him alive like Sheol, and one without blemish like those descending into the pit;

Brenton Septuagint Translation
and let us swallow him alive, as Hades would, and remove the memorial of him from the earth:

Contemporary English Version
They're well and healthy now, but we'll finish them off once and for all.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.

English Revised Version
Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those that go down into the pit;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
We'll swallow them alive like the grave, like those in good health who go into the pit.

Good News Translation
They may be alive and well when we find them, but they'll be dead when we're through with them!

International Standard Version
Let's swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those who go down into the Pit.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Let us swallow them up alive as the grave, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

Literal Standard Version
We swallow them as Sheol—alive, | And whole—as those going down [to] the pit,

Majority Standard Bible
let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.

New American Bible
Let us swallow them alive, like Sheol, whole, like those who go down to the pit!

NET Bible
We will swallow them alive like Sheol, those full of vigor like those going down to the Pit.

New Revised Standard Version
like Sheol let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.

New Heart English Bible
let's swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit.

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

World English Bible
Let’s swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit.

Young's Literal Translation
We swallow them as Sheol -- alive, And whole -- as those going down to the pit,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Enticement of Sin
11If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause, 12let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit. 13We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder.…

Cross References
Psalm 28:1
To you, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.

Psalm 35:25
Let them not say in their hearts, "Aha, just what we wanted!" Let them not say, "We have swallowed him up!"

Psalm 124:3
when their anger flared against us, then they would have swallowed us alive,

Proverbs 1:13
We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder.


Treasury of Scripture

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

swallow

Psalm 35:25
Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.

Psalm 56:1,2
To the chief Musician upon Jonathelemrechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath. Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me…

Psalm 57:3
He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

as the

Psalm 5:9
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

Romans 3:13
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

whole

Numbers 16:30-33
But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD…

Numbers 26:10
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

Psalm 28:1
A Psalm of David. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

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Proverbs 1
1. The use of the proverbs
7. An exhortation to fear God, and believe his word
10. to avoid the enticing of sinners
20. Wisdom complains of her contempt
24. She threatens her contemners














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

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.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
let us swallow them
נִ֭בְלָעֵם (niḇ·lā·‘êm)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect Cohortative if contextual - first person common plural | third person masculine plural
Strong's 1104: To swallow down, swallow up, engulf

alive
חַיִּ֑ים (ḥay·yîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2416: Alive, raw, fresh, strong, life

like Sheol,
כִּשְׁא֣וֹל (kiš·’ō·wl)
Preposition-k | Noun - common singular
Strong's 7585: Underworld (place to which people descend at death)

and whole
וּ֝תְמִימִ֗ים (ū·ṯə·mî·mîm)
Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 8549: Entire, integrity, truth

like those descending
כְּי֣וֹרְדֵי (kə·yō·wr·ḏê)
Preposition-k | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural construct
Strong's 3381: To come or go down, descend

into the Pit.
בֽוֹר׃ (ḇō·wr)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 953: A pit, cistern, well


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 1:12 Let's swallow them up alive like Sheol (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 1:11
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