What Does Proverbs 1:10 Mean in the King James?
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Another person’s persuasion can reach you without becoming your consent.
THE MEANING
When another person’s invitation pulls you toward missing, the pull and your consent remain separate. The verse speaks into the moment of pressure now: what reaches you does not already own your yes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that being tempted means you have already agreed, or that another person’s pressure has taken your choice away.
THE ROOT
יְפַתּוּךָ
yefattukha
GROWS FROM
פתה
To persuade, allure, or deceive.
“entice” in this verse is yefattukha. The verb carries the force of persuasion or deception, so the danger is not simply that an impulse appears; someone is trying to move you. The verse keeps that persuasion distinct from your consent.
ALSO GROWS
pethī: Simple, inexperienced.
פֶּתִי
This related word names someone vulnerable to persuasion, showing how enticement can work through inexperience.
pittuy: Enticement, persuasion.
פִּתּוּי
This noun makes the persuasive action explicit: enticement is an effort to win someone over.
חַטָּאִים
chatta’im
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss or go astray; by extension, to sin.
“sinners” in this verse is chatta’im. The Hebrew names these people through the root of missing. Their invitation draws toward the same kind of missing, but the verse still distinguishes their pull from the listener’s choice.
ALSO GROWS
chata: To miss, go astray, or sin.
חָטָא
The verb shows the action behind the label: a way of missing the mark.
chatta’t: Missing or sin; in some contexts, an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This related noun echoes the passage’s word for sinners and preserves the root’s link between missing and sin.
תֹּבֵא
tove’
GROWS FROM
אבה
To be willing or to consent.
“consent” in this verse is tove’. The refusal is framed around willingness itself: another’s persuasion does not automatically become your assent. The verse locates a boundary between being enticed and lending your will.
ALSO GROWS
avah: To be willing or consent.
אָבָה
This verb names the assent the verse tells the reader to withhold.
oveh: Willing or consenting.
אֹבֶה
This related form describes the state of willingness, clarifying what the refusal protects.
THE PATTERN
Pressure becomes a path when the will gives it consent.
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.THE THREAD
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.The word חַטָּאת (chatta’t, “sin”) shares the root חטא (chata, “miss”) with “sinners” in Proverbs. Genesis pictures that missing as pressing at the door, while Proverbs shows that another’s enticement and the reader’s consent remain distinct.
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