Proverbs 2:16-20
Lexham English Bible
16 in order to deliver you from a strange woman,
from a foreign woman who flatters[a] with her sayings,
17 she who forsakes the partner of her youth
and has forgotten the covenant of her God,
18 for her house sinks to death,
and to the dead[b] are her paths.
19 Of all who go to her, none shall return,
nor do they reach paths of life.
20 So that you will walk on the road of those who are good,
and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:16 Or “makes smooth”
- Proverbs 2:18 Or “Rephaim”
Proverbs 5
Lexham English Bible
5 My child, be attentive to my wisdom,
and to my understanding incline your ear;
2 in order to keep prudence,
and knowledge will guard your lips.
3 For the lips of the strange woman will drip honey,
and smoother than oil is her mouth.[a]
4 But her end is bitter as the wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps take hold of Sheol.[b]
6 She does not observe[c] the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
Do Not Commit Adultery Against Wisdom
7 Now, O children, listen to me;
do not depart from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Keep your paths far from her,
and do not go near to the door of her house,
9 lest you give your honor to the others,
and your years to the merciless,
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and you groan at your end,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and say “How I hated discipline,
and I despised reproof!”
13 and “I did not listen to the voice of my teachers,
and I did not incline my ear to my instructors!
14 I was almost at utter[d] ruin[e]
in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern
and flowing waters from inside your own well.
16 Shall your springs be scattered outward?
In the streets, shall there be streams of water?
17 May they be yours alone,
and not for strangers who are with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife[f] of your youth.
19 She is a deer of love and a doe of grace;
may her breasts satisfy you always;[g]
by her love may you be intoxicated continually.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman,
and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21 For before the eyes of Yahweh are human ways,[h]
and all his paths he examines.
22 His iniquities shall ensnare him, the evildoer,
and in the vanity of his sin he shall be caught.
23 He shall die for lack of[i] discipline,
and in the greatness of his folly he shall be lost.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 5:3 Or “palate”
- Proverbs 5:5 A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld
- Proverbs 5:6 Or “examine, weigh”
- Proverbs 5:14 Or “all, every, whole”
- Proverbs 5:14 Or “evil”
- Proverbs 5:18 Or “woman”
- Proverbs 5:19 Literally “at all time”
- Proverbs 5:21 Literally “the ways of man/humankind”
- Proverbs 5:23 Literally “with there is no”
Proverbs 6:24-35
Lexham English Bible
24 in order to preserve you from an evil woman,[a]
from the smoothness of the tongue of an adulteress.[b]
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart;
may she not capture you with her eyelashes.
26 For the price of a woman, a prostitute,[c] is the price of a loaf of bread,
but the woman belonging to a man[d] hunts precious life.
Warning Against Relations with a Married Woman
27 Can a man carry fire in his lap,
and his clothes not burn?
28 If a man walks upon the hot coals,
will his feet not be burned?
29 Thus, he who goes to the wife of his neighbor,
any who touches her shall not go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief when he steals
to fill himself[e] when he is hungry.
31 But if he is found, he will pay sevenfold,
every possession of his house he shall give.
32 He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense,[f]
he destroys himself[g] who does it.
33 A wound and dishonor he will find,
and his disgrace will not be wiped out.
34 For jealousy is the fury of a husband,
and he will not show restraint on the day of revenge.
35 He will not accept any compensation,[h]
and he will not be willing, though the bribe is large.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:24 Or “wife”
- Proverbs 6:24 Literally “a foreign woman”
- Proverbs 6:26 Or “whore”
- Proverbs 6:26 Literally “the woman of a man”
- Proverbs 6:30 Or “soul,” or “inner self”
- Proverbs 6:32 Literally “heart”
- Proverbs 6:32 Or “his soul,” or “his life”
- Proverbs 6:35 Literally “the face of any compensation”
Proverbs 7
Lexham English Bible
Warning Against the Strange Woman
7 My child, guard my sayings;
store my commandments with you.
2 Keep my commands and live,
and my teaching like the apple of your eye.[a]
3 Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom,[b] “you are my sister,”
and you shall call insight,[c] “intimate friend.”[d]
5 In order to guard yourself from an adulteress,[e]
from the foreigner who makes her words smooth.[f]
6 For at the window of my house,
through my lattice, I looked down.
7 And I saw among the simple,
I observed among the youth,
a young man lacking sense,[g]
8 passing on the street at[h] her corner,
and he takes the road to her house,
9 at twilight, at the day’s evening,
in the midst of night and the darkness.
10 Then behold! A woman comes to meet him
with the garment of a prostitute[i] and a secret heart.[j]
11 She is loud and stubborn;
her feet do not stay at her house.
12 Now in the street, now in the square,
at[k] every corner she lies in wait.
13 She took hold of [l] him and kissed him.
Her face was impudent, and she said to him,
14 “Sacrifices of peace offerings are upon me;
today[m] I completed my vows.
15 So[n] I have come out to meet you,
to seek your face, and I have found you.
16 With coverings I have adorned my couch,
spreads of the linen of Egypt;
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love making,
until the morning let us delight in love.
19 For there is no man[o] in his home;
he has gone on a long journey.[p]
20 The bag of money he took in his hand,
for on the day of the full moon he will come home.”
21 She persuades him with the greatness of her teachings;
with her smooth lips she compels him.
22 He goes after her suddenly;
like an ox to the slaughter he goes,
and like a stag to the instruction of a fool,
23 until an arrow pierces his entrails,[q]
like a bird rushing into a snare,
but he does not know that it will cost him his life.[r]
Reiteration of the Warning Against a Strange Woman
24 And now, my children, listen to me,
and be attentive to the sayings of my mouth.
25 May your heart not turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her path.
26 For many slain she has laid low,
and countless[s] are all of her killings.
27 The ways of Sheol[t] are her house,
descending to chambers of death.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 7:2 A single word meaning “pupil of the eye”
- Proverbs 7:4 Hebrew “the wisdom”
- Proverbs 7:4 Hebrew “the insight”
- Proverbs 7:4 Literally “one who is known.” To “know” is often a euphemism for intercourse. Therefore “intimate friend” may also be read “lover.”
- Proverbs 7:5 Literally “a strange woman”
- Proverbs 7:5 Literally “causes to be smooth her words”
- Proverbs 7:7 Literally “heart”
- Proverbs 7:8 Literally “at the place of”
- Proverbs 7:10 Or “whore”
- Proverbs 7:10 Literally “secret of heart”
- Proverbs 7:12 Literally “at the place of”
- Proverbs 7:13 Or “strengthened”
- Proverbs 7:14 Literally “the day”
- Proverbs 7:15 Hebrew “thus”
- Proverbs 7:19 Or “husband”
- Proverbs 7:19 Literally “a journey from far”
- Proverbs 7:23 Literally “heaviness,” often referring to the liver
- Proverbs 7:23 Literally “it is against his life”
- Proverbs 7:26 Or “strong men”
- Proverbs 7:27 A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld
Proverbs 9:13-18
Lexham English Bible
13 A woman of foolishness is loud,
simple, and does not know it.[a]
14 She sits at the door of her house,
upon a throne at the high places of town,
15 in order to call to those who pass by the road,
those who go straight on their way:
16 “Whoever is simple, may he turn here!”
As for he who lacks sense,[b] she says to him,
17 “Stolen waters are sweet,
and bread of secrecy is pleasant.”
18 But he does not know that the dead[c] are there,
in the depths of Sheol[d] are her guests.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 9:13 Literally “what”
- Proverbs 9:16 Literally “heart”
- Proverbs 9:18 Or “Rephaim”
- Proverbs 9:18 A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld
Proverbs 22:14
Lexham English Bible
14 A deep pit is the mouth of an adulteress,[a]
he with whom Yahweh is angry will fall there.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 22:14 Literally “a strange woman”
Proverbs 23:26-28
Lexham English Bible
26 My child, may you give your heart[a] to me,
and may your eyes delight in my ways.
27 For a deep pit is a prostitute,[b]
and a narrow well is an adulteress.[c]
28 She is also like a robber lying in wait,
and the faithless among mankind she increases.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:26 Or “mind”
- Proverbs 23:27 Or “whore”
- Proverbs 23:27 Literally “a foreign woman”
Proverbs 29:3
Lexham English Bible
3 A man who loves wisdom will make his parents glad,
but the friend of prostitutes[a] will squander his wealth.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 29:3 Or “whores”
Proverbs 30:20
Lexham English Bible
20 This is the way of a woman committing adultery:
she eats and wipes her mouth,
and says “I have not done wrong.”
Proverbs 31:2-3
Lexham English Bible
2 What, my son? And what, my son in my womb?
And what, son of my vows?
3 Do not give your strength to the women,
and your ways to destroy kings.
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