28:3 Do not drag me away with evil men,
with those who behave wickedly, 1
who talk so friendly to their neighbors, 2
while they plan to harm them! 3
24:11 Deliver those being taken away to death,
and hold back those slipping to the slaughter. 4
22:19 He will be left unburied just like a dead donkey.
His body will be dragged off and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.’” 5
1 tn Heb “workers of wickedness.”
2 tn Heb “speakers of peace with their neighbors.”
3 tn Heb “and evil [is] in their heart[s].”
4 tn The idea of “slipping” (participle from מוֹט, mot) has troubled some commentators. G. R. Driver emends it to read “at the point of” (“Problems in Proverbs,” ZAW 50 [1932]: 146). But the MT as it stands makes good sense. The reference would be general, viz., to help any who are in mortal danger or who might be tottering on the edge of such disaster – whether through sin, or through disease, war, or danger. Several English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this term as “staggering.”
5 sn A similar judgment against this ungodly king is pronounced by Jeremiah in 36:30. According to 2 Chr 36:6 he was bound over to be taken captive to Babylon but apparently died before he got there. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar ordered his body thrown outside the wall in fulfillment of this judgment. The Bible itself, however, does not tell us that.