for they ¹  are eager ²  to inflict harm, ³  and they hasten ⁴  to shed blood. ⁵ 

biblegateway Pro 1:16

For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood.

because their feet run toward trouble and they hurry to commit murder.

because they rush to do evil and hurry to shed blood.

biblegateway Pro 1:16

for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.

for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

bibleoremus Pro 1:16

for their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood.

they hasten hotfoot into crime, pressing on to shed blood.

biblegateway Pro 1:16

For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood.

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

biblegateway Pro 1:16

for they ¹  are eager ²  to inflict harm, ³  and they hasten ⁴  to shed blood. ⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “their feet.” The term “feet” is a synecdoche of the part (= their feet) for the whole person (= they), stressing the eagerness of the robbers.

² tn Heb “run.” The verb רוּץ (ruts, “run”) functions here as a metonymy of association, meaning “to be eager” to do something (BDB 930 s.v.).

³ tn Heb “to harm.” The noun רַע (ra’) has a four-fold range of meanings: (1) “pain, harm” (Prov 3:30), (2) “calamity, disaster” (13:21), (3) “distress, misery” (14:32) and (4) “moral evil” (8:13; see BDB 948-49 s.v.). The parallelism with “swift to shed blood” suggests it means “to inflict harm, injury.”

⁴ tn The imperfect tense verbs may be classified as habitual or progressive imperfects describing their ongoing continual activity.

⁵ tc The BHS editors suggest deleting this entire verse from MT because it does not appear in several versions (Codex B of the LXX, Coptic, Arabic) and is similar to Isa 59:7a. It is possible that it was a scribal gloss (intentional addition) copied into the margin from Isaiah. But this does not adequately explain the differences. It does fit the context well enough to be original.