Proverbs 1:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Surely in vain, &c.— The Syriac, which omits Proverbs 1:16., connects this with the 15th verse in this manner; And they fraudulently stretch and cast their net upon the bird. It reads, For the nets are not spread for the birds in vain: the LXX read unjustly instead of in vain; but that version seems forced and unnatural. For though it must be confessed, that the Hebrew word generally has this signification; yet that it also signifies in vain, appears from Ezekiel 6:10. The proverb then is a tacit reflection upon the obstinacy and infatuation of those persons, qui vivi viventes pereunt, who will not be warned by any sight or sense of their danger to avoid it; and who in this respect act with less prudence and caution than the very birds themselves, who will not fall into the net which is spread before them. See Dr. Grey's notes on the Proverbs. Other and different senses are given of this proverb; but, says Calmet, I prefer this: The wicked make haste to shed blood, and unjustly spread their nets before the birds; "They take the just by surprise, as they would take birds." Schultens, however, thinks that this verse connects with the following one, thus; "There is no bird so stupid as to fly into a net spread immediately before its eyes; but these abandoned sinners spread with their own hands, immediately before their own eyes, those nets by which they willingly involve themselves in certain death and ruin: for they who lay snares for the blood of the innocent lay snares for themselves; and they who desire to swallow up the virtuous alive, as the grave, will themselves be swallowed up in that grave, and plunged in destruction."