Avoiding Immorality (Leviticus 20:10–21; 1 Corinthians 5:1–8)
1 CPDV My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence, BSB BSB: My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 CPDV so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman. BSB BSB: that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 CPDV For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil. BSB BSB: Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 CPDV But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. BSB BSB: in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 CPDV Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell. BSB BSB: Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 CPDV They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable. BSB BSB: She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 CPDV Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw 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 CPDV Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house. BSB BSB: Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 CPDV Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel. BSB BSB: lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 CPDV Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house, BSB BSB: lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 CPDV and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say: BSB BSB: At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 CPDV “Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction? BSB BSB: and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 CPDV And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers? BSB BSB: I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 CPDV I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.” BSB BSB: I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 CPDV Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well. BSB BSB: Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 CPDV Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets. BSB BSB: Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 CPDV Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you. BSB BSB: Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 CPDV Let your spring 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 CPDV a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by 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 CPDV Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another? BSB BSB: Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 CPDV The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps. BSB BSB: For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 CPDV His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins. BSB BSB: The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 CPDV He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived. 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.