Avoiding Immorality (Leviticus 20:10–21; 1 Corinthians 5:1–8)
1 AKJV My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding: BSB BSB: My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 AKJV That you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge. BSB BSB: that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 AKJV For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: BSB BSB: Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 AKJV But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. BSB BSB: in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 AKJV Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. BSB BSB: Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 AKJV Lest you should ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that you can not know them. BSB BSB: She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 AKJV Hear me now therefore, O you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. BSB BSB: So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 AKJV Remove your way far from her, and come not near the door of her house: BSB BSB: Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 AKJV Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel: BSB BSB: lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 AKJV Lest strangers be filled with your wealth; and your labors be in the house of a stranger; BSB BSB: lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 AKJV And you mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, BSB BSB: At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 AKJV And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; BSB BSB: and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 AKJV And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me! BSB BSB: I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 AKJV I was almost in all evil in the middle of the congregation and assembly. BSB BSB: I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 AKJV Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well. BSB BSB: Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 AKJV Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. BSB BSB: Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 AKJV Let them be only your own, and not strangers’ with you. BSB BSB: Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 AKJV Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth. BSB BSB: May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19 AKJV Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be you ravished always with her love. BSB BSB: A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
20 AKJV And why will you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? BSB BSB: Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 AKJV For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his goings. BSB BSB: For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 AKJV His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins. BSB BSB: The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 AKJV He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. BSB BSB: He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.