Avoiding Immorality (Leviticus 20:10–21; 1 Corinthians 5:1–8)
1 UDB My son, learn the lessons I teach you about wisdom. I understand much about this, so listen very carefully to what I tell you. BSB BSB: My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 UDB If you do that, you will learn the difference between what is important and what is not, and you will not mix true knowledge with mistakes when you speak. BSB BSB: that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 UDB The woman who desires to commit adultery speaks with words that are sweet, and her kisses are smoother than oil, BSB BSB: Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 UDB but in the end she is so bitter you can taste it, and she cuts you like a sharp sword. BSB BSB: in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 UDB She walks down to the place of death; if you follow her, she will lead you all the way to the grave. BSB BSB: Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 UDB She does not want to take the path that will let her live for a long time. She goes here and there, but where she is going she does not know. BSB BSB: She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 UDB So now, my sons, pay attention to what I say, and do not forget or disobey the instruction I am giving you. BSB BSB: So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 UDB Stay far away from the immoral woman; do not go near the door of her house. BSB BSB: Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 UDB If you go to her, you will lose the respect of others, and you give your life to someone who will not have mercy on you. BSB BSB: lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 UDB It may be that others will take all the wealth that you have earned, and it goes into the houses of people you do not know. BSB BSB: lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 UDB And when you are about to die, you will groan because your flesh and your body are wasting away. BSB BSB: At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 UDB Then you will say, "I hated it when I was punished for doing wrong; I despised people when they told me how to live. BSB BSB: and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 UDB I did not obey my teachers and I paid no attention to those who taught me. BSB BSB: I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 UDB I was almost destroyed by bad things that happened to me, and this was known to everyone who came together to worship Yahweh." BSB BSB: I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 UDB Just as you drink water from your own cistern, be faithful to your own wife. BSB BSB: Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 UDB You would not waste your own water by pouring it into the street, or let your water run into the public places. BSB BSB: Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 UDB Let both your water and your wife be for you alone to enjoy, and not for others to share with you. BSB BSB: Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 UDB May your fountain be blessed; may you be happy with the woman you married when you were young. BSB BSB: May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19 UDB She is as graceful as a loving deer and as graceful as a young doe. Let her breasts always satisfy your longings, so you are forever enraptured 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 UDB My son, why should you be caught up in the arms of an adulteress? Why should you caress the breasts of another man's wife? BSB BSB: Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 UDB Yahweh sees everything we do; nothing is hidden from him. He sees every path we take; he knows everywhere we go. BSB BSB: For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 UDB An evil person's sinful desires take hold of him; his sins are like a trap that catches him. BSB BSB: The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 UDB An evil man will die because he could not say "No" to his desires; he gets lost because his foolishness has no limits. 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.