Bible Strands
Proverbs 1:17
How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Solomon addresses his son, interrupting his own warning to critique the reasoning of wicked men who eagerly pursue violence. The remark occurs mid-speech to expose the logical flaw in their conspiracy.
The words — חִנָּם (ḥinnām) translates to "in vain" or "futilely," and רָשֶׁת (rāšet) denotes a fine mesh net or trap.
The thread — The motif of visible snares resurfaces in Proverbs 7:23, where a victim is caught unaware. Jeremiah 8:7 contrasts this human blindness with birds that instinctively recognize their appointed seasons.
Why it lands — It requires readers to acknowledge that schemes relying on deception collapse when they lack concealment, making the intended harm rebound on the schemer.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
Cross-references
- Job 35:11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
- Proverbs 7:23 until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.
- Jeremiah 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
- Isaiah 1:3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”