Avoiding Immorality
(Leviticus 20:10–21; 1 Corinthians 5:1–8)
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Pro 22:17Pro 2:1Pro 4:20Rev 2:11Mrk 4:23Rev 2:17Rev 3:13Jas 1:19
incline your ear to my insight,
that you may maintain discretion Mal 2:6-7Pro 15:7Pro 16:23Sng 4:11Pro 10:21Pro 15:2Psa 119:13Psa 45:2
and your lips may preserve knowledge.
Though the lips of the forbidden woman 1drip honey Pro 2:16Pro 6:24Pro 7:21Pro 7:5Psa 55:21Rev 17:2-6
and her speech 2is smoother than oil,
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Ecc 7:26Psa 55:21Psa 57:4Heb 4:12Pro 9:18Heb 12:15-16Jdg 16:15-21Jdg 16:4-6
sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; Pro 7:27Pro 2:18-19
her steps lead straight to Sheol. 3
She does not consider the path of life; Pro 4:26Pro 5:21Psa 16:11Pro 30:20Pro 6:12-13Psa 119:592Th 2:9-10Pro 11:19
she does not know that her ways are unstable.
So now, my sons, listen to me, Pro 4:1Pro 22:17-21Pro 7:24Heb 12:25Pro 3:21Pro 4:21Pro 8:32-36
and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
Keep your path far from her; Eph 5:11Pro 7:25Mat 6:13Pro 4:15Pro 6:27-28
do not go near the door of her house,
lest you concede your vigor to others, Neh 13:26Hos 4:13-14Gen 38:23-26Jdg 16:19-21Pro 6:29-35
and your years to one who is cruel;
lest strangers feast on your wealth, Hos 7:9Pro 6:35Pro 31:3Luk 15:30
and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
At the end of your life you will groan Rom 6:21Rev 22:15Heb 13:4Num 5:271Co 5:4-5Deu 32:29Jer 5:31Pro 7:23
when your flesh and your body are spent,
and you will say, “How I hated discipline, Pro 12:1Pro 1:22Pro 1:25Pro 1:7Pro 15:5Exo 2:13-14Jer 44:4Jhn 3:19-20
and my heart despised reproof!
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers 1Th 4:8Heb 13:7Luk 15:181Th 5:12-13
or incline my ear to my mentors.
I am on the brink of utter ruin Pro 13:201Co 10:6-82Pe 2:10-18Hos 4:11-14Num 25:1-6Jud 1:7-13
in the midst of the whole assembly.”
Drink water from your own cistern, 1Co 7:2-5Heb 13:4Pro 5:18-19
and running water from your own well.
Why should your springs flow in the streets, Psa 128:3Psa 127:3Deu 33:28Gen 24:60Isa 48:21Jdg 12:9Psa 68:26
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed, Ecc 9:9Mal 2:14-15Sng 4:15Sng 4:12
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
A loving doe, a graceful fawn— Sng 7:3Sng 2:9Sng 4:5Sng 8:14Pro 5:15Sng 2:172Sa 12:4
may her breasts satisfy you always;
may you be captivated 4by her love forever.
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, Pro 6:24Pro 7:51Ki 11:1Pro 22:14Pro 23:27-28Pro 23:33Pro 2:16-19
or embrace the bosom of a stranger? 5
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, Heb 4:13Pro 15:3Jer 32:19Job 34:21Hos 7:2Jer 16:17Jer 23:24Psa 11:4
and the LORD examines 6all his paths.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; Pro 1:31-32Pro 11:5Eph 5:5-6Hos 4:11-14Num 32:23Pro 1:18Psa 9:151Co 5:9-10
the cords of his sin entangle him.
He dies for lack of discipline, Job 36:12Job 4:212Pe 2:15-22Pro 10:21Pro 14:32Pro 14:14Psa 81:12
led astray by his own great folly.