Proverbs 5 Cross References - ISV

¹ Warning against Sexual Immorality My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and listen closely to my insight, ² so you may carefully practice discretion and your lips preserve knowledge. ³ For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. ⁴ But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead to Sheol. ⁶ You aren’t thinking about where her life is headed; her steps wander, but you do not realize it. ⁷ Now, children, listen to me. Don’t turn away from what I am saying. ⁸ Keep far away from her, and don’t go near the entrance to her house, ⁹ so that you don’t give your honor to others, and waste your best years; ¹⁰ so that strangers don’t enrich themselves at your expense, and your work won’t end up the possession of foreigners. ¹¹ You will cry out in anguish when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated instruction, and my heart rejected correction! ¹³ I did not obey my teachers and did not listen to my instructors. ¹⁴ Now I am at the point of utter disaster in the assembly and in the congregation.”
¹⁵ The Delights of Marital FaithfulnessDrink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well. ¹⁶ Should your springs flow outside, or streams of water in the street? ¹⁷ They should be for you alone and not for strangers who are with you. ¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed and enjoy the wife of your youth. ¹⁹ Like a loving deer, a beautiful doe, let her breasts satisfy you all the time. Be constantly intoxicated by her love. ²⁰ Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? ²¹ Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD’s presence, and he weighs all his paths. ²² The wicked person’s iniquities will capture him, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. ²³ He will die for lack of discipline, and he goes astray because of his great folly.

¹ The Benefits of Embracing Wisdom My son, if you accept my words, and treasure my instructions—

¹ Diligently Pursue Wisdom Listen, children, to your father’s instruction, and pay attention in order to gain understanding.

²⁰ Remembering the Counsel of a Wise FatherMy son, pay attention to my words, and listen closely to what I say.

¹⁷ Sayings of the WisePay attention and listen to the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my teaching,

⁹ Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones!

²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!

¹⁹ You must understand this, my dear brothers. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

⁷ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give the privilege of eating from the tree of life that is in God’s paradise.’”

¹¹ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be hurt by the second death.’”

¹⁷ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone. On the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the person who receives it.’”

²⁹ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

⁶ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

¹³ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

²² ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

² You are the most handsome of Adam’s descendants; grace has anointed your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.

¹⁵ I will declare your righteousness and your salvation every day, though I do not fully understand what the outcome will be.

¹³ I have spoken with my lips about all your decrees that you have announced.

²¹ What the righteous person says nourishes many, but fools die because they lack discerning hearts.

² The wise speak, presenting knowledge appropriately, but fools spout foolishness.

⁷ What the wise have to say disseminates knowledge, but it’s not in the heart of fools to do so.

²³ A wise person’s thoughts control his words, and his speech promotes instruction.

¹⁵ There is an abundance of gold and precious stones, but lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.

¹¹ Your lips drip honey, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The scent of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

⁶ True teachings were in his mouth, and falsehood was not found on his lips. He walked with me peacefully and righteously, and he turned many from sin. ⁷ For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he’s the messenger of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

²¹ His mouth is as smooth as butter, while war is in his heart. His words were as smooth as olive oil, while his sword is drawn.

¹⁶ delivering you from the adulteress, from the immoral woman with her seductive words,

²⁴ to protect you from the evil woman, from the words of the seductive woman.

⁵ so they can keep you from an adulterous woman, from the immoral woman with her seductive words.

²¹ She leads him astray with great persuasion; with flattering lips she seduces him.

² The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those living on earth became drunk with the wine of her immorality.”
³ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was controlled by blasphemy. It had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman wore purple and scarlet clothes and was adorned with gold, gems, and pearls. In her hand she was holding a gold cup filled with detestable things and the impurities of her immorality. ⁵ On her forehead was written a secret name:
BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND DETESTABLE THINGS OF THE EARTH ⁶ I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. I was very surprised when I saw her.

⁴ Samson Meets DelilahAfter this incident, he loved a woman in Sorek Valley whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The Philistine officials approached her and told her, “Entice him to discover where his great strength is, and how we can overpower him. We intend to tie him up and torture him. We’ll each pay you 1,100 silver coins.”
⁶ So Delilah asked Samson, “Please tell me the secret to your great strength and how you may be tied up and tortured.”

¹⁵ Samson Tells Delilah His SecretSome time later, she asked him, “How can you keep saying ‘I love you!’ when your heart isn’t with me? These three times you’ve lied to me and haven’t told me where your great strength lies.” ¹⁶ She nagged him every day with this speech, pestering him until he was annoyed nearly to death.
¹⁷ So he finally disclosed everything. He told her, “A razor has never touched my head, because I’ve been a Nazirite for God before I was born. If I am shaved, then my strength will abandon me and I will become weak like every human being.”
¹⁸ When Delilah realized that he had disclosed everything to her, she sent for the Philistine officials and told them, “Hurry up and come here at once, because he has told me everything.” So the Philistine officials went to her and brought their money with them. ¹⁹ So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him.
²⁰ When she cried out, “The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!” he woke from his sleep and told himself, “I’ll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free.” But he didn’t know that the LORD had abandoned him.
²¹ Samson is Imprisoned by the PhilistinesThen the Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, tied him up in bronze chains, and made him grind grain in their prison.

⁴ I am surrounded by lions. I lie down with those who burn with fire— that is, with people whose teeth are like spears and arrows— whose tongues are like sharp swords.

²⁴ to protect you from the evil woman, from the words of the seductive woman. ²⁵ Do not focus on her beauty in your mind, nor allow her to take you prisoner with her flirting eyes, ²⁶ because the price of a whore is a loaf of bread, and an adulterous woman stalks a man’s precious life. ²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his bosom without burning his clothes? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? ²⁹ So also is it with someone who has sex with his neighbor’s wife; anyone touching her will not remain unpunished. ³⁰ A thief isn’t despised if he steals to meet his needs when he is hungry, ³¹ but when he is discovered, he must restore seven-fold, forfeiting the entire value of his house. ³² Whoever commits adultery with a woman is out of his mind; by doing so he corrupts his own soul. ³³ He will receive a beating and dishonor, and his shame won’t disappear, ³⁴ because jealousy incites a strong man’s rage, and he will show no mercy when it’s time for revenge. ³⁵ He will not consider any payment, nor will he be willing to accept it, no matter how large the bribe.

²² All of a sudden he follows her like an ox fit for slaughter or like a fool fit for a trap ²³ until an arrow pierces his liver. As a bird darts into a snare, he doesn’t realize his fatal decision.

¹⁸ But he does not realize that the dead lurk there, and her invited guests wind up in the depths of Sheol.

²⁷ because a prostitute is a deep pit, and the adulterous woman a narrow well. ²⁸ Surely she lies in wait like a bandit, increasing those who are faithless among mankind.

²⁶ I discovered for myself a bitterness that surpasses that of death: the woman whose heart is full of snares and nets, whose hands are chains of bondage. Whoever pleases God will escape from her, but the transgressor will be trapped by her.

¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart.

¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up and causes you trouble, or many of you will become defiled. ¹⁶ No one should be immoral or godless like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

¹⁸ For her house leads down to death, and her paths down to the realm of the dead. ¹⁹ None who go to her return, nor do they reach the paths of life.

²⁷ Her house leads to Sheol, descending to death’s catacombs.

¹¹ You cause me to know the path of life; in your presence is joyful abundance, at your right hand there are pleasures forever.

⁵⁹ I examined my lifestyle and set my feet in the direction of your decrees.

²⁶ Carefully measure the paths for your feet, and all your ways will be established.

²¹ Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD’s presence, and he weighs all his paths.

¹² The Folly of Causing StrifeA worthless man, a wicked man, goes around with devious speech, ¹³ winking with his eyes, making signs with his feet, pointing with his fingers,

¹⁰ Look! A woman makes her way to meet him, dressed as a prostitute and intending to entrap him. ¹¹ She is brazen and defiant— her feet don’t remain at home. ¹² Now she is in the street, now in the plazas, she lurks near every corner. ¹³ So she grabs hold of him and kisses him, with a brazen face she speaks to him, ¹⁴ “I have given my peace offerings, and today I fulfilled my vows. ¹⁵ Therefore, I’ve come out to meet you, I’ve looked just for you, and I found you! ¹⁶ I’ve decorated my bed with new coverings— embroidered linen from Egypt. ¹⁷ I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come, let’s make love until dawn; let’s comfort ourselves with love, ¹⁹ because my husband isn’t home. He left on a long trip. ²⁰ He took a fist full of cash and he’ll return home in a month.” ²¹ She leads him astray with great persuasion; with flattering lips she seduces him.

¹⁹ Genuine righteousness leads to life, but whoever pursues evil will die.

²⁰ This is what an immoral woman is like: she eats, wipes her mouth, then says “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the power of Satan. He will use every kind of power, including miraculous signs, lying wonders, ¹⁰ and every type of evil to deceive those who are dying, those who refused to love the truth that would save them.

²¹ Benefits of WisdomMy son, do not let wisdom leave your sight. Carefully observe sound judgment and discernment,

²¹ Do not let them out of your sight; keep them within your heart.

²⁴ So listen to me, my sons, and pay attention to what I have to say.

³² The Exhortation of Wisdom“So listen to me, children! Blessed are those who obey me. ³³ Listen to instruction and be wise. Don’t ignore it. ³⁴ Blessed is the person who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorways— ³⁵ because those who find me find life and gain favor from the LORD. ³⁶ But whoever sins against me destroys himself; everyone who hates me loves death.”

¹⁷ Sayings of the WisePay attention and listen to the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my teaching, ¹⁸ for it is pleasant when you treasure them within you and have them ready on your lips. ¹⁹ As a result, your trust will be in the LORD, that’s why I’m teaching you today, even you. ²⁰ Have I not written for you 30 sayings containing counsel and knowledge, ²¹ to teach you true and reliable advice, so you can give truthful answers to those who sent you?

²⁵ See to it that you do not ignore the one who is speaking. For if the hearers did not escape when they ignored the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we turn away from the one who is from heaven!

¹⁵ Avoid it! Don’t travel on it! Turn away from it, and pass on by.

²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his bosom without burning his clothes? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

²⁵ Don’t be led astray by her lifestyle, and don’t imitate her behavior.

¹³ And never bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

¹¹ and have nothing to do with the unfruitful actions that darkness produces. Instead, expose them for what they are.

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her have those things. Otherwise, we’ll become contemptible. I sent this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”
²⁴ Tamar’s Pregnancy Rebukes JudahThree months later, it was reported to Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution! And look! She’s pregnant because of it!”
“Bring her out,” Judah responded. “Let’s burn her to death!”
²⁵ While they were bringing her out, she sent this message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these things belong. Furthermore,” she added, “tell me to whom this signet ring, cord, and staff belongs.”
²⁶ When Judah recognized them, he admitted, “She is more upright than I, because I never did give her my son Shelah.” And he never had sex with her again.

²⁶ Didn’t Solomon, king of Israel, sin by doing these things, even though among many nations there was no king like him who was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel? Even so, foreign women caused him to sin.

¹³ They offer sacrifices on the mountain tops, burning offerings on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees, since their shade is very good. Therefore your daughters are prostitutes and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. ¹⁴ However, I’m not going to punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because their men are themselves immoral— they offer sacrifices with prostitutes. These people who aren’t discerning will stumble.

³⁵ He will not consider any payment, nor will he be willing to accept it, no matter how large the bribe.

³ Never devote all your energy to sex, or dedicate your life to destroying kings.

⁹ Foreigners have consumed his strength, and he hasn’t noticed. Furthermore, his head is sprinkled with gray hair, but he doesn’t realize it.

³⁰ But this son of yours spent your money on prostitutes, and when he came back, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

²⁷ When he has had her drink the water, if she was defiled and had acted unfaithfully toward her husband, then the contaminated water that brings a curse will enter her and infect her, causing her abdomen to swell and her thigh to waste away. Then she is to be a cursed woman among her people.

²⁹ O, that they were wise to understand this and consider their future!

²³ until an arrow pierces his liver. As a bird darts into a snare, he doesn’t realize his fatal decision.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?”

²¹ What benefit did you get from doing those things you are now ashamed of? For those things resulted in death.

⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together (and I am there in spirit), and the power of our Lord Jesus is there, too, ⁵ turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of his body, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

⁴ Let marriage be kept honorable in every way, and the marriage bed undefiled. For God will judge those who commit sexual sins, especially those who commit adultery.

⁸ But people who are cowardly, unfaithful, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will find themselves in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

¹⁵ Outside are dogs, sorcerers, immoral people, murderers, idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

⁹ But they replied, “Get out of the way! This man came here as a foreigner, and now he’s acting like a judge! So we’re going to deal more harshly with you than with them.” Then they pushed hard against the man (that is, against Lot), intending to break down the door.

¹³ Going out the next day, Moses noticed two Hebrew men fighting right in front of him. He told the one who was at fault, “Why did you strike your companion?”
¹⁴ The man replied, “Who appointed you to be an official judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?”
Then Moses became terrified and told himself, “Certainly this event has become known!”

²⁰ Then Jehoiada the priest’s son Zechariah was clothed by the Spirit of God, and he stood above the people and told them, “This is what God has to say: ‘Why are you breaking the LORD’s commandments. You’ll never be successful! Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.’”
²¹ But the people conspired against him, and at the direct orders of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s Temple. ²² This is how King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him: he killed his son. As he lay dying, Zechariah cried out, “May the LORD watch this and avenge.”

¹⁶ But even while the prophet was speaking, the king asked him, “Did we appoint you to be a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?”
So the prophet stopped speaking, but he also said, “I know God has determined to destroy you, because you’ve done all this and ignored my counsel.”

¹⁰ Manasseh Repents and is RestoredThe LORD kept on speaking to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention to him, ¹¹ so the LORD brought in the army commanders who worked for the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him in bronze chains, and took him off to Babylon.

¹⁶ but they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the LORD that arose to punish his people.

¹⁷ You hate instruction and toss my words behind you.

²² Then, I was too stupid and didn’t realize I was acting like a wild animal with you.

⁷ The Major ThemeThe fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

²² “You naïve ones, how long will you love naiveté? And how long will scoffers delight in scoffing or fools hate knowledge?”

²⁵ because you neglected all my advice and did not want my correction,

²⁹ “Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD; ³⁰ they did not want my advice, and they rejected all my correction.

²³ Because the command is a lamp and the Law a light, rebukes that discipline are a way of life—

¹ Wisdom and Wickedness Contrasted The person who loves correction loves knowledge, but anyone who hates a rebuke is stupid.

¹⁸ Poverty and shame are for those who ignore correction, but whoever listens to instruction gains honor.

⁵ A fool rejects his father’s instructions, but anyone who respects reproof acts sensibly.

⁴ Yet I sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, “Don’t do this repulsive thing that I hate.”

⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “It’s time to turn from your evil lifestyles and from your evil actions,” ‘but they would neither listen nor pay attention to me,’” declares the LORD.’ ⁵ “Your ancestors—where are they? And the prophets—do they live forever? ⁶ But my words and my statutes that I gave as commands to my servants the prophets—did they not overwhelm your ancestors? And they returned to me: ‘The LORD of the Heavenly Armies acted toward us just as he planned to do—in keeping with our lifestyles and in keeping with our actions.’”

¹¹ But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening. ¹² They made their hearts hard like a diamond, to keep from obeying the Law and the messages that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. ¹³ Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,’ says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. ¹⁴ ‘I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.’”
Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert.

¹⁹ And this is the basis for judgment: The light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light because their actions were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who practices wickedness hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his actions may not be exposed.

¹⁸ I will get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and you.

⁸ Therefore, whoever rejects this instruction is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

¹² Paul Gives Final Instructions to the ChurchBrothers, we ask you to show your appreciation for those who work among you, set an example for you in the Lord, and instruct you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard, loving them because of their work. Live in peace with each other.

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who have spoken God’s word to you. Think about the impact of their lives, and imitate their faith.

¹ Worship of Baal of PeorWhile Israel remained encamped in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with Moabite women, ² who also invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So the people ate what they had sacrificed and then worshipped their gods. ³ The people joined the Baal-peor cult. As a result, the anger of the LORD flared up against Israel, ⁴ so the LORD told Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight for the LORD, so the LORD’s burning anger may be withdrawn from Israel.”
⁵ Then Moses ordered the judges of Israel, “Each one of you is to execute the men in his own tribe who joined the Baal-peor cult.”
⁶ That very moment, one of the Israelis arrived, bringing to his brothers one of the Midianite women, right in front of Moses and the entire community of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting!

²⁰ Whoever keeps company with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.

¹¹ “Sexual immorality, wine, and fresh wine seduce the heart of my people. ¹² My people seek counsel from their piece of wood, and their diviner’s rod speaks to them. For a spirit of prostitution causes them to go astray; in their immorality they desert their God.

⁶ Now their experiences serve as examples for us so that we won’t set our hearts on evil as they did. ⁷ Let’s stop being idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play.” ⁸ Let’s stop sinning sexually, as some of them were doing, and on a single day 23,000 fell dead.

¹⁰ especially those who satisfy their flesh by indulging in its passions and who despise authority.
Being bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to slander glorious beings. ¹¹ Yet even angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous accusation against them from the Lord. ¹² These people, like irrational animals, are mere creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. They insult what they don’t understand, and like animals they, too, will be destroyed, ¹³ suffering harm as punishment for their wrongdoing. They take pleasure in wild parties in broad daylight. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures while they eat with you. ¹⁴ With eyes full of adultery, they cannot get enough of sin. They seduce unsteady souls and have had their hearts expertly trained in greed. They are doomed to a curse. ¹⁵ They have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Bosor’s son Balaam, who loved the reward he got for doing wrong. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his offense. A donkey that normally cannot talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity.
¹⁷ These men are dried-up springs, mere clouds driven by a storm. Gloomy darkness is reserved for them. ¹⁸ By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.

⁷ Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities near them, which like them committed sexual sins and pursued homosexual activities, serve as an example of the punishment of eternal fire.
⁸ In a similar way, these dreamers also defile their flesh, reject the Lord’s authority, and slander his glorious beings. ⁹ Even the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil and fought over the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him. Instead, he said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ Whatever these people do not understand, they slander. Like irrational animals, they are destroyed by the very things they know by instinct. ¹¹ How terrible it will be for them! For they lived like Cain did, rushed headlong into Balaam’s error to make a profit, and destroyed themselves, as happened in Korah’s rebellion. ¹² These people are stains on your love feasts. They feast with you without any sense of awe. They are shepherds who care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds blown about by the winds. They are autumn trees that are fruitless, totally dead, and uprooted. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their own shame. They are wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed and enjoy the wife of your youth. ¹⁹ Like a loving deer, a beautiful doe, let her breasts satisfy you all the time. Be constantly intoxicated by her love.

² Because sexual immorality is so rampant, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband.
³ A husband should fulfill his obligation to his wife, and a wife should do the same for her husband. ⁴ A wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but his wife does. ⁵ Do not withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so just for a set time, in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should come together again so that Satan does not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

⁶⁰ As they were leaving, they all blessed Rebekah by saying, “Our sister, may you become the mother of tens of millions! May your descendants take over the city gates of those who hate them.”

²⁸ So Israel lives in confidence, isolated as the fountain of Jacob in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens rain down dew.

⁹ He had 30 sons and 30 daughters, but he gave his daughters in marriage to outsiders and brought in 30 outsiders for his sons. He governed Israel for seven years,

²⁶ Bless God in the great congregation, the LORD who is the fountain of Israel.

³ Children are a gift from the LORD; a productive womb, the LORD’s reward.

³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children like olive shoots surrounding your table.

²¹ They didn’t thirst when he led him through the desolate places. He made water gush from a rock for them; he split open the rock, and water gushed out.

⁹ Find joy in living with your wife whom you love every day of your pointless life that God gave you on earth, because this is your life assignment and your work to do on earth.

¹² My sister, my bride, is a locked garden a locked rock garden, a sealed up spring.

¹⁵ You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water, streams flowing from Lebanon.

¹⁴ Yet you ask, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD acts as a witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you were unfaithful to her, your partner, the wife of your covenant. ¹⁵ Did he not make them one? And the vestige of the spirit remains in him. And why did he make them one? He was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and don’t be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

⁴ A traveler arrived to visit the rich man. Because he was unwilling to take an animal from one of his own flocks or herds to prepare for the guest who had come to visit him, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to visit him.”

¹⁵ The Delights of Marital FaithfulnessDrink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well.

⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, gazing through the lattice.

¹⁷ Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn around, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the rugged mountains.

⁵ Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

³ Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

¹⁴ The Loved OneCome quickly, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

¹ Solomon’s Forbidden Marriages and Idolatry
But King Solomon married many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh: women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidonia, along with Hittite women, too,

¹⁶ delivering you from the adulteress, from the immoral woman with her seductive words, ¹⁷ someone who abandoned the companion of her youth and forgot the covenant of her God.

¹⁴ The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; a man experiencing the LORD’s wrath will fall into it.

³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and with slurred words you’ll speak what you really believe.

⁹ The LORD’s eyes keep on roaming throughout the earth, looking for those whose hearts completely belong to him, so that he may strongly support them. But because you have acted foolishly in this, from now on you will have wars.”

¹⁶ Then you’ll certainly count every step I took, but you won’t keep an inventory of my sin.

⁴ He watches my life, observing every one of my actions, does he not?”

²¹ Yes, Job, his eyes constantly watch the behavior of human beings; he carefully observes their every step.

⁴ The LORD is in his holy Temple; the LORD’s throne is in the heavens. His eyes see, his glance examines humanity.

³ When you probe my heart, and examine me at night; when you refine me, you will find nothing wrong, for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.

¹⁶⁸ I keep your precepts and your decrees because all of my ways are before you.

¹ To the Music Director: A Davidic Song
God’s Knowledge and Presence LORD, you have examined me; you have known me. ² You know when I rest and when I am active. You understand what I am thinking when I am distant from you. ³ You scrutinize my life and my rest; you are familiar with all of my ways. ⁴ Even before I have formed a word with my tongue, you, LORD, know it completely! ⁵ You encircle me from back to front, placing your hand upon me. ⁶ Knowledge like this is too amazing for me. It is beyond my reach, and I cannot fathom it.
⁷ The Magnitude of GodWhere can I flee from your spirit? Or where will I run from your presence? ⁸ If I rise to heaven, there you are! If I lay down with the dead, there you are! ⁹ If I take wings with the dawn and settle down on the western horizon ¹⁰ your hand will guide me there, too, while your right hand keeps a firm grip on me. ¹¹ If I say, “Darkness will surely conceal me, and the light around me will become night,” ¹² even darkness isn’t dark to you, darkness and light are the same to you.

³ The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing both the evil and the good.

¹⁷ For I am watching all their ways; they are not hidden from my sight. Their iniquity is not concealed from my eyes.

¹⁰ I am the LORD who searches the heart, who tests the inner depths to give to each person according to what he deserves, according to the fruit of his deeds.

²⁴ If a person hides himself in secret places, will I not see him?” declares the LORD. “I fill the heavens and the earth, do I not?” declares the LORD.

¹⁹ You are great in regards to your purposes and mighty in regards to your works. Your eyes are open to everything that people do, and will reward each one according to their ways and just as their actions deserve.

² It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin. Now their actions have caught up with them, and they have my attention.

¹³ No creature can hide from him, but everyone is exposed and helpless before the eyes of the one to whom we must give a word of explanation.

¹⁸ The Letter to the Church in Thyatira“To the messenger of the church in Thyatira, write:
‘The Son of God, whose eyes are like flaming fire and whose feet are like glowing bronze, says this:

²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will reward each of you as your actions deserve.

²³ “But if you won’t do so, look out! You will be sinning against the LORD. Be certain of this, that your sin will catch up to you!

¹⁵ He digs a pit, even excavates it; then he fell into the hole that he had made. ¹⁶ The trouble he planned will return on his own head, and his violence will descend on his skull.

¹⁵ The nations have sunk down into the pit they made, their feet are ensnared in the trap they set.

¹⁸ but these people lie in wait for their own blood. They ambush only themselves.

³¹ They will eat the fruit of their way, and they will be filled with their own devices. ³² Indeed, the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

³ The integrity of the righteous guides them, but the hypocrisy of the treacherous destroys them.

⁵ The righteousness of the innocent creates a level path, but the wicked fall by their wickedness.

¹⁹ Your wickedness will be punished, and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy. Know and see that it’s evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, but the fear of me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter to stop associating with people who are sexually immoral— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, greedy, robbers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

¹⁹ Now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, ²⁰ idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, ²¹ envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

⁷ Stop being deceived; God is not to be ridiculed. A person harvests whatever he plants: ⁸ The person who sows through human means will harvest decay from human means, but the person who sows in the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit.

⁵ For you know very well that no immoral or impure person, or anyone who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.
⁶ Living in the LightDo not let anyone deceive you with meaningless words, for it is because of these things that God becomes angry with those who disobey.

²¹ Their wealth perishes with them, doesn’t it? They die, and do so without having wisdom, don’t they?”

¹² “But if they won’t listen, they’ll perish by the sword and die in their ignorance.

¹² So I allowed them to continue in their stubbornness, living by their own advice.

¹⁴ The faithless one will pay for his behavior, but a good man will be rewarded for his.

³² The wicked person is thrown down by his own wrongdoing, but the righteous person has a place of safety in death.

¹⁵ They have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Bosor’s son Balaam, who loved the reward he got for doing wrong. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his offense. A donkey that normally cannot talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity.
¹⁷ These men are dried-up springs, mere clouds driven by a storm. Gloomy darkness is reserved for them. ¹⁸ By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ Promising them freedom, they themselves are slaves to depravity, for a person is a slave to whatever conquers him.
²⁰ For if, after escaping the world’s corruptions through a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah, they are again entangled and conquered by those corruptions, then their last condition is worse than their former one. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them. ²² The proverb is true that describes what has happened to them: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A pig that is washed goes back to wallow in the mud.”