Verse 14. - Cast in thy lot among us. The fourth and last enticement put forward, viz. honourable union and frank and open hearted generosity. It has distinct reference to the preceding verse, and shows how the prospect of immediate wealth is to be realized (see Delitzsch, Wardlaw). Cast in thy lot cannot mean, as Mercerus, "cast in your inheritance with us, so that we all may use it in common," though גּורָל (goral) does mean "inheritance" in the sense of that which comes to any one by lot (Judges 1:3) (Gesenius), since that would be no inducement to youth to join the robbers. Goral properly is "a little stone or pebble," κλῆρος, especially such as were used in casting lots, and so equivalent to a "lot" here - that with which the distribution was made, as in Leviticus 16:8; Nehemiah 10:34; and the custom of freebooters dividing the spoil by lot is here alluded to (Holden); comp. Psalm 22:18 in illustration of the practice of casting lots, "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." The sense is, "you shall equally with the others cast lots for your share of the spoil" (Zockler, Delitzsch). Let us all have one parse. Purse; כִּיס (kis), the βαλάντιον of the LXX., the marsupium of the Vulgate, is the receptacle in which money is placed for security. In Proverbs 15:11 it is used for the bag in which traders kept their weights, "the weights of the bag;" and in Proverbs 23:31 it is translated "cup," the wine cup. It here signifies the common stock, the aggregate of the gains of the robbers contributed to a common fund. The booty captured by each or any is to be thrown into one common stock, to form one purse, to be divided by lot among all the members of the band. On this community of goods among robbers, compare the Hebrew proverb, In localis, in poculis, in ira. Community of goods among the wicked carries with it community in crime, just as the community of goods among the early Christians implied community in good works and in the religious sentiments of the Christian body or Church. The Rabbi Salomon Isacides offers another explanation (which leaves the choice open to youth either to share in the spoil by lot, or to live at the expense of a common fund, as he may prefer): "Si voles, nobiscum spolia partieris, si etiam magis placebit, sociali communique marsupio nobiscum vives" - "If thou wilt, thou shalt share with us the booty; ay, if it like thee more, thou halt live with us on a confederate and common purse" (see Cornelius a Lapide).

1:10-19 Wicked people are zealous in seducing others into the paths of the destroyer: sinners love company in sin. But they have so much the more to answer for. How cautious young people should be! Consent thou not. Do not say as they say, nor do as they do, or would have thee to do; have no fellowship with them. Who could think that it should be a pleasure to one man to destroy another! See their idea of worldly wealth; but it is neither substance, nor precious. It is the ruinous mistake of thousands, that they overvalue the wealth of this world. Men promise themselves in vain that sin will turn to their advantage. The way of sin is down-hill; men cannot stop themselves. Would young people shun temporal and eternal ruin, let them refuse to take one step in these destructive paths. Men's greediness of gain hurries them upon practices which will not suffer them or others to live out half their days. What is a man profited, though he gain the world, if he lose his life? much less if he lose his soul?Cast in thy lot among us,.... Or "thou shall cause thy lot to fall among us" (u); though just entered, as soon as any booty is taken thou shalt cast lots with us, and have thy full share with those that have been longer engaged;

let us all have one purse; or "we will all have one purse" (w); will throw all our booty, taken by us into one common stock, and live upon it comfortably and merrily. Jarchi represents it as putting it to the young man's option, to do which he would, either to cast lots and take his share separately, or let it be put altogether, and so partake jointly with the rest. According to Gersom the sense is, that there should be such an exact division made, that there should not be more in one purse than in another; their shares should be equally divided by lot, and their purses should be alike; one should not have more than another: these are the arguments used by wicked men to allure and ensnare young men to join with them in their sinful ways and practices; from which they are dehorted, as follows.

(u) "sortem tuam conjicies", Junius & Tremellius; "projicies", Mercerus, Baynus; "jacies", Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens. (w) "erit nobis omnibus", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version; so Cocceius, Schultens, and the Targum.