1:11

The three lines of this verse each contain part of the sinners’ invitation to the young man, so all three lines are parallel. However, the last two lines are more closely related to each other, since they have parallel parts that are similar in meaning.

11a If they say, “Come along,

11b
let us lie in wait for blood,

11c
let us ambush the innocent without cause,

1:11a

If they say: The words If they say introduce one long quotation that contains several different statements (1:11–14). The conclusion to these statements does not occur until 1:15. In some languages, it is not natural to separate an “if” clause from its conclusion in this way. If that is true in your language, there are a number of possible solutions:

• Start 1:11 with a command that is similar to the command in 1:10b to not give in to these sinners. For example:

⌊Do not listen to them⌋ if they say, “Come, join us(excl.).

• Do not use an “if” clause to introduce the quotation. For example:

They may say, “Come and join us… (New Living Translation (2004))

Come along: This is an invitation for the young man to join a gang of highway robbers.

1:11b–c

let us lie in wait for…let us ambush: The Hebrew verbs that the Berean Standard Bible translates as let us lie in wait for and let us ambush are very similar in meaning. The first verb is often used about animals that hide and wait for a chance to kill their prey. The second verb means “to hide.” In this context, the purpose of hiding is to attack someone from ambush.

blood…the innocent: In this verse, blood is a figure of speech that represents a person who will be murdered. To “lie in wait for blood” means to hide and wait for a chance to murder someone.

“Innocent blood” is a common word pair in the Old Testament. In this verse, it is separated into two lines because of the parallelism. By putting innocent in the last line, the author builds to a climax. Not only are these sinners planning to ambush and kill someone, they are actually intending to kill a person who is totally innocent.

1:11c

without cause: The Hebrew phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as without cause emphasizes that there is no valid reason for the attack.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

wantonly ambush the innocent (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
plan an ambush for the innocent without provocation (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
attack some innocent people for the fun of it (Good News Translation)
-or-
waylay some innocent person who has done us no harm (Revised English Bible)

In some languages, it may be redundant or awkward to have both the ideas of “innocent” and without cause in the same sentence. This may especially be true if the word “innocent” is expressed by a phrase such as “someone who has done no wrong.” If that is true in your language, you may need to leave one of these two ideas implicit. For example:

waylay someone who has done absolutely nothing wrong

General Comment on 1:11b–c

In some languages, it may be clearer or more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel parts in 1:11b–c. If that is true in your language, be sure that you communicate the meaning of both verse parts. For example:

Let us ambush and kill some innocent people for no reason.

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