Proverbs 23:28

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, And increases the unfaithful among men.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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כְּחֶ֣תֶף

chetheph

H2863

“like/as · prey”

Preposition + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2862

TWOT: 782a

prey - (CLBL) robber

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

כְּחֶ֣תֶף prey H2863

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

כְּחֶ֣תֶף prey H2863

Shared distinctive vocabulary

תֶּֽאֱרֹ֑ב to lie in wait H693 occurs in 39 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
1 pronoun
1 particle

Verb forms

תֶּֽאֱרֹ֑ב Qal · Imperfect
וּ֝בוֹגְדִ֗ים Qal · Participle Active
תּוֹסִֽף Hiphil · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 14 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 8 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 23:28 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
Proverbs 7:12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, And lurking at every corner.
Hosea 4:11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
1 Corinthians 10:8 Neither let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.
Proverbs 22:14 The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit: He who is under Yahweh's wrath will fall into it.
Revelation 17:1–2 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
Proverbs 2:16–19 To deliver you from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
Proverbs 7:22–27 He followed her immediately, As an ox goes to the slaughter, As a fool stepping into a noose.

Jeremiah 3:2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
Numbers 25:1 Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab:
Judges 16:4–22 It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Proverbs 9:18 But he doesn't know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Proverbs 23:28 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אַף הִ֭יא כְּחֶ֣תֶף תֶּֽאֱרֹ֑ב וּ֝בוֹגְדִ֗ים בְּאָדָ֥ם תּוֹסִֽף

Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, And increases the unfaithful among men.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 23:28 Septuagint · lemma form

οὗτος γάρ συντόμως ἀποὀλλύω καί πᾶς παράνομος ἀναἁλίσκω

For such a one shall perish suddenly; and every transgressor shall be cut off.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Proverbs 23:28 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Commentary source

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Pro 23:28 She also lieth in wait as [for] a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

Ver. 28. She also lieth in wait.] Terence calls harlots Cruces crumenimulgas, sordida poscinummia, &c., base beg pennies, pick purses, &c. See the notes upon Pro 7:1-27. {See Trapp on "Pro 7:1"} &c

And increaseth the transgressors among men.] Nothing hath ever so enriched hell as the whorish woman. See above.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

She seduceth many and causeth them to offend God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

increaseth . . . transgressors-- (Pro 5:8-10). The vice alluded to is peculiarly hardening to the heart.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 28. Increaseth the transgressors among men.] More iniquity springs from this one source of evil, than from any other cause in the whole system of sin. Women and strong drink cause many millions to transgress.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Increaseth the transgressors (faithless) among men.—This vice being the fruitful source of faithlessness both towards man and God.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

28. as for a prey] Better, with A.V. marg., R.V. text, as a robber.

transgressors] Better, treacherous. Those whom she seduces become in their turn seducers and untrustworthy in similar relations.

The Evils of Drunkenness, Pro_23:29-35.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

She also lieth in wait as for a prey,.... At the door of her house, in the corner of the streets, in the dark of the night; laying her snares, and spreading her nets, for unwary persons, to make a prey of their virtue and of their money. Or, "as a man of prey" (k); a thief and robber, so Gersom; thus she watches and takes all opportunities to seize on persons, and rob them of their substance, health, and credit; or rather "as a beast of prey"; ravenous, devouring, and insatiable; so the Targum,

"as a beast ravening, she lies in wait with her eyes;''

and increaseth the transgressors among men; there is none that occasions wore sin, or makes more sinners, than a whorish woman; swearing, lying, drunkenness, thieving, stealing, housebreaking, robbing on the highway, &c. are the sins she leads into. Or, "increaseth treacherous" (l) persons; to God, to their king, to their wives, to their master's; and all that they may consume, what they can get by perfidious practices, upon them, or,

"perfidious persons among men, she adds "to herself" (m);''

she gets a parcel of abandoned wretches about her, whom she employs as her panders for her lust, or as bullies to spoil her gallants of their substance, or murder them for the sake of it.

(k) "tanquam vir praedae", Vatablus; "ut praedator", Mercerus, Gejerus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ut raptor", Cocceius; "velut praedo", Michaelis; "ut harpago", Schultens. (l) "perfidos", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schultens. (m) "adjungitque sibi", Tigurine version.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Him. Protestants, "increaseth the transgressors among men," (Haydock) and like a harpy, kills all whom she can entrap.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Lieth in wait as for a prey; watching all opportunities of insnaring young men to their destruction.

Increaseth the transgressors among men; she is the cause of innumerable sins against God, and against the marriage-bed, against the soul and body too, and by her wicked example and arts involveth many persons in the guilt of her sins.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

She also lieth in wait as for a prey. "Yea, she (Pro_22:19) lieth in wait," as is graphically described in Pr 7. (comp. Jer_3:2) Chetheph is better taken, not as "prey," but in a concrete sense as the person who snatches it, the robber. Vulgate, Insidiatur in via quasi latro. (comp. Psa_10:9) And increaseth the transgressors among men. The Greek and Latin versions have taken pysiwOr as meaning "kills," "destroys." But the verb yasaph always means "to add," here "to multiply." The special transgression indicated is treachery or faithlessness. The harlot leads her victim to be faithless to his God, his wife, his parents, his tutor, his master. Septuagint, "For he shall perish suddenly, and every transgressor shall be destroyed."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Paul E. Kretzmann

v. 28. She also lieth in wait as for a prey, like a highwayman, and increaseth the transgressors among men, multiplying the number of those who yield to her seductive arts and commit the sin of fornication or adultery. cf Pro 7:5-23.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

suddenly Heb. כחתף, suddenly.

and she will increase the faithless among men She increases in Israel those who are faithless to God. He is referring to apostasy.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Proverbs, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is chetheph (“prey”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “prey” (chetheph) contribute to the verse as a whole?
This verse holds 1 word here found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. What might the rare word draw attention to?
The word “prey” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Deuteronomy 19:11 shares the word «to lie in wait» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «תֶּֽאֱרֹ֑ב» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 18 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.