My son, if sinners entice thee. (As to the form of address, see Proverbs 1:8.) It is here used because the writer is passing to a warning against bad company, and hence the term is emphatic, and intended to call especial attention to what is said.
It is repeated again in Proverbs 1:15, at a further stage in this address, with the same view. Sinners; חַטָּאִים (khattaim), the plural of חַטָּא (khatta), from the root חָטָּא (khata), properly "to miss the mark, to err;" cf.
Greek, ἀμαρτάνω, "to sin" (Gesenius), here equivalent to "habitual, abandoned sinners," and those especially who make robbery and bloodshed a profession. Not simply peccantes, i.e. sinners as a generic designation of the human race, for "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), but peccatores (Chaldee, Syriac, Pagin; Tigur; Versions and Vulgate).
"sinners," i.e. those who sin habitually, knowingly, wilfully, and maliciously (Gejerus), or those who give themselves up to iniquity, and persuade others to follow their example (Cartwright). In the New Testament they are styled ἀμαρτωλοὶ.
They are those of whom David speaks in strikingly parallel language in Psalms 26:9, "Gather not my soul with sinners (khattaim), nor my life with bloody men" (cf. Psalms 1:1). The LXX. has ἄνδρες ἀσεβεῖς (i.
e. ungodly, unholy men). Entice thee; ' יְפַתּוּךָ (yephattukha); the piel form, פִתָּה (pitah), of the kal פָתָּה (patah), "to open," and hence to make accessible to persuasion, akin to the Greek πειθεῖν, "to persuade."
The noun פְּתִי (pethi), is "one easily enticed or persuaded" (Gesenius). The LXX. reads μὴ πλανήσωσιν, "let them not lead thee astray." The idea is expressed in the Vulgate by lactaverint; i.e. "if sinners allure or deceive thee with fair words."
The Syriac, Montan; Jun. et Tremell; Versions read pellexerint, from pellicio, "to entice." Consent thou not. ( אַל־תֹּבֵא, al-tove ) א. The Masoretic text here has been emended by Kennicott and De Rossi, who, on the joint authority of fifty-eight manuscripts, maintain that תֹּבֵא (tove ) א should be written תּאֹבֵא (tosves).
Others read תָּבאֹ (tavos), i.e. "thou shalt not go," which, though good sense, is incorrect. אַל־ (al) is the adverb of negation, i.q. μὴ, ne. The Hebrew תֹּבֵא (toves) is derived from אָבָה (avah).
"to agree to, to be willing" (Gesenius, Delitzsch), the preformative אbeing omitted, and is accurately rendered by the LXX; μὴ βουληθῇς, and the Vulgate, ne acquiescas. The warning is especially brief and striking.
The only answer to all enticements of evil is a decided negative (Plumptre). Compare St. Paul's advice to the Ephesians (Ephesians 5:11, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them").