What Does Proverbs 1:10 Mean?
My son, if those who miss the mark coax you, do not go along.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.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.
“coax” 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.
“those who miss the mark” 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.
“go along” 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 you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, falling short crouches at the door. Its reaching is toward you, and you shall rule over it.But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.Therefore do not let falling short rule in your dying body, so that you would hear and respond to its cravings.THE THREAD
If you do well, will you not be lifted up? And if you do not do well, falling short crouches at the door. Its reaching is toward you, and you shall rule over it.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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