What Does Proverbs 24:15 Mean?
Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the aligned one; do not ravage his lying place.
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
Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:THE KEY
The verse sets the predator lying in wait against the righteous person lying down, exposing the attack on rest as the attack itself.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the moment when someone’s home and settled rest become an opening for harm. It names the concealed watcher and the plunderer as one threat: safety itself is under attack where a person lets down their guard. The aligned person’s dwelling is a place of dignity, not an invitation to exploit vulnerability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the lie that another person’s vulnerability at home makes them a permissible target; the verse names that vulnerability as the very thing being violated.
THE ROOT
תֶּאֱרֹב
te'erov
GROWS FROM
ארב
ʾ-r-b
To lie in wait, ambush.
“lie in wait” in this verse is te'erov. The Hebrew verb names concealed readiness to strike, not merely waiting. Beside the word for a person’s resting place, it sets an ambusher’s alert posture against another person’s repose.
ALSO GROWS
ʾorev: One lying in wait, an ambusher.
אֹרֵב
The same root makes the waiting person an active threat, clarifying the posture behind the command.
ma'arav: An ambush, a place or act of lying in wait.
מַאֲרָב
This branch shows that the threat can be a concealed setup directed at someone’s vulnerable place.
רִבְצוֹ
ribtso
GROWS FROM
רבץ
r-b-ts
To lie down, crouch, or settle.
“lying place” in this verse is ribtso. The word for a resting place grows from the action of lying down. English can make the phrase sound like property alone; the Hebrew also evokes a body settled into repose, the very state the ambusher exploits.
ALSO GROWS
rāvaṣ: To lie down or crouch.
רָבַץ
In Genesis 29:2, flocks lie down by a well; this same bodily verb underlies the resting place in this verse.
mirbāṣ: A lying place, fold, or resting ground.
מִרְבָּץ
Ezekiel 34:14 uses this related form for a good fold, showing the root’s connection to a place where a flock can settle.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right, just, in alignment.
“aligned one” in this verse is tsaddiq. The person called righteous is described through alignment, not merely a label of moral perfection. The verse sets that aligned life and its dwelling against a predator who would turn rest into an opportunity for harm.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice, rightness, alignment.
צֶדֶק
This noun makes the root’s sense of alignment visible as a quality of what is just.
tsedaqah: Justice, right conduct, alignment expressed in action.
צְדָקָה
This branch carries alignment into action, connecting the person’s character with the dwelling the verse protects.
THE PATTERN
A person’s dwelling and bodily rest are not openings for another’s predation.
Do not plow evil against your neighbor, while he sits safely beside you.In wholeness, together, I lie down and sleep. For you, LORD, alone, make me settle where I can lean.And my people will settle in a dwelling of wholeness, and in tents of leaning, and in resting places at ease.THE THREAD
The wicked are overturned and are not, but the house of the aligned stands.The same צדיק root names the righteous person here and the righteous household there. Proverbs 24:15 forbids making that person’s resting place a target; Proverbs 12:7 shows the house of the aligned enduring.
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