Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Difference between Good and Sinful People

1 Happy is the man who does not walk in the way sinful men tell him to, or stand in the path of sinners, or sit with those who laugh at the truth. ² But he finds joy in the Law of the Lord and thinks about His Law day and night. ³ This man is like a tree planted by rivers of water, which gives its fruit at the right time and its leaf never dries up. Whatever he does will work out well for him.

⁴ Sinful men are not like this. They are like straw blown away by the wind. ⁵ So the sinful will not stand. They will be told they are guilty and have to suffer for it. Sinners will not stand with those who are right with God. ⁶ For the Lord knows the way of those who are right with Him. But the way of the sinful will be lost from God forever.

Being Led into Sex Sins

5 My son, listen to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding. ² So you may know what is good thinking, and your lips may keep much learning. ³ For the lips of a strange woman are as sweet as honey. Her talk is as smooth as oil. ⁴ But in the end she is as bitter tasting as wormwood, and as sharp as a sword that cuts both ways. ⁵ Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of hell. ⁶ She does not think about the path of life. Her ways go this way and that, and she does not know it.

⁷ Now then, my sons, listen to me. Do not turn away from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep far away from her. Do not go near the door of her house. ⁹ If you do, you would give your strength to others, and your years to those without loving-kindness. ¹⁰ Strangers would be filled with your strength, and the fruits of your work would go to a strange house. ¹¹ You would cry inside yourself when your end comes, when your flesh and body are wasted away. ¹² You would say, “How I have hated teaching! My heart hated strong words! ¹³ I have not listened to the voice of my teachers. I have not turned my ear to those who would teach me. ¹⁴ Now I have a bad name in the meeting place of the people.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own pool, flowing water from your own well. ¹⁶ Should the waters from your well flow away, rivers of water in the streets? ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you. ¹⁸ Let your well be honored, and be happy with the wife you married when you were young. ¹⁹ Let her be like a loving, female deer. Let her breasts please you at all times. Be filled with great joy always because of her love. ²⁰ My son, why should you be carried away with a sinful woman and fall into the arms of a strange woman? ²¹ For the ways of a man are seen by the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths. ²² His own sins will trap the sinful. He will be held with the ropes of his sin. ²³ He will die for want of teaching, and will go the wrong way because of the greatness of his foolish ways.

³⁴ “Salt is good. But if salt has lost its taste, how can it be made to taste like salt again? ³⁵ It is no good for the field or the waste place. Men throw it away. You have ears, then listen!”