Proverbs 7 Cross References - BSB

¹ My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. ² Keep my commandments and live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. ³ Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. ⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman, ⁵ that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words. ⁶ For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice. ⁷ I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking judgment, ⁸ crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house, ⁹ at twilight, as the day was fading into the dark of the night. ¹⁰ Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart. ¹¹ She is loud and defiant; her feet do not remain at home. ¹² Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner. ¹³ She seizes him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him: ¹⁴ “I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows. ¹⁵ So I came out to meet you; I sought you, and I have found you. ¹⁶ I have decked my bed with coverings, with colored linen from Egypt. ¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight in loving caresses! ¹⁹ For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. ²⁰ He took with him a bag of money and will not return till the moon is full.” ²¹ With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him. ²² He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap, ²³ until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life. ²⁴ Now, my sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth. ²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. ²⁶ For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number. ²⁷ Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

²⁸ but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

²² Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.

⁸ Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

¹ My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you, ² if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding, ³ if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, ⁴ if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, ⁵ then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. ⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,

¹ My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;

¹⁴ The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool invites destruction.

¹⁵ But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.

²⁸ But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

²⁰ Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.

³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.

⁹ But he said to me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”

⁵ Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD.

¹⁰ He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

⁸ Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings

⁴ he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live.

¹³ Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

³ Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant—My loving devotion promised to David.

⁸ For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye—

⁴⁹ I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it. ⁵⁰ And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”

²¹ Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you.

³ By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. ⁴ If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.

⁸ Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,

³ Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

²¹ Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

⁸ Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the days to come, a witness forever and ever.

¹ “The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.

³³ “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

³ It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

¹⁴ and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

² if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding, ³ if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, ⁴ if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

⁶ Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you. ⁷ Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding. ⁸ Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

¹ O that you were to me like a brother who nursed at my mother’s breasts! If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.

⁴⁹ Pointing to His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

²⁷ As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and blessed are the breasts that nursed You!” ²⁸ But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

¹⁶ It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

³ Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

⁸ When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

²⁸ Sisera’s mother looked through the window; she peered through the lattice and lamented: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? What has delayed the clatter of his chariots?’

¹⁶ As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.

⁷ The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.

¹³⁰ The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple.

⁴ To impart prudence to the simple and knowledge and discretion to the young,

²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?

³² For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

³² He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

⁵ O simple ones, learn to be shrewd; O fools, gain understanding.

⁴ “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” she says to him who lacks judgment.

¹⁶ “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” she says to him who lacks judgment.

¹³ Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.

¹¹ The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks judgment.

¹⁵ The simple man believes every word, but the prudent man watches his steps.

¹⁸ The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

² Even zeal is no good without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps misses the mark.

²⁵ Strike a mocker, and the simple will beware; rebuke the discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.

³ The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

³⁰ I went past the field of a slacker and by the vineyard of a man lacking judgment.

¹² The prudent see danger and take cover; but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

²² “For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”

¹⁶ “Do you still not understand?” Jesus asked.

¹⁸ For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. ¹⁹ Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.

¹ One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.

² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. ³ So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

¹⁴ Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. ¹⁵ Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.

⁸ Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

¹² Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

²² Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; and to still others show mercy tempered with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

¹¹ One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside.

⁶ You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

¹³ Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths. ¹⁴ When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief. ¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.

¹² The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

¹¹ Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

¹⁴ she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife. ¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

²² When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

³⁰ Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.

¹⁶ The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles— ¹⁷ the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare.” ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away their finery: their anklets and headbands and crescents; ¹⁹ their pendants, bracelets, and veils; ²⁰ their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms; ²¹ their signet rings and nose rings; ²² their festive robes, capes, cloaks, and purses; ²³ and their mirrors, linen garments, tiaras, and shawls. ²⁴ Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.

¹⁶ “Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.”

³⁰ And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.

² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. ³ I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

⁹ Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,

³ And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. ⁵ And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

⁹ “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked. “There, in the tent,” he replied.

¹³ The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing.

²⁴ Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

¹⁴ If one blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be counted to him as a curse. ¹⁵ A constant dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike—

¹⁰ A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies. ¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he lacks nothing of value. ¹² She brings him good and not harm all the days of her life. ¹³ She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. ¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. ¹⁵ She rises while it is still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidservants. ¹⁶ She appraises a field and buys it; from her earnings she plants a vineyard. ¹⁷ She girds herself with strength and shows that her arms are strong. ¹⁸ She sees that her gain is good, and her lamp is not extinguished at night. ¹⁹ She stretches out her hands to the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. ²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. ²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for they are all clothed in scarlet. ²² She makes coverings for her bed; her clothing is fine linen and purple. ²³ Her husband is known at the city gate, where he sits among the elders of the land. ²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchants. ²⁵ Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the days to come. ²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. ²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. ²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband praises her as well: ²⁹ “Many daughters have done noble things, but you surpass them all!” ³⁰ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. ³¹ Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates.

¹³ At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention. ¹⁴ So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their households, denying the adversary occasion for slander.

⁵ to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.

¹⁴ She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the heights of the city,

²⁸ Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

²⁰ “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

³³ How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.

³⁶ How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

² “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

²⁴ you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square. ²⁵ At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

³¹ But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

³ All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

²³ The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

⁷ and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

¹² She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

¹ While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

⁶ Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁷ On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, ⁸ followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,

¹⁶ “Look, these women caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to turn unfaithfully against the LORD at Peor, so that the plague struck the congregation of the LORD.

²⁹ A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright man makes his way sure.

⁷ Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.

⁴ They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’

⁶ But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷ But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ⁸ Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.”

³³ Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.

²⁰ But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

¹¹ Now this is the law of the peace offering that one may present to the LORD:

¹⁵ The meat of the sacrifice of his peace offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day he offers it; none of it may be left until morning. ¹⁶ If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, but the remainder may be eaten on the next day.

⁶ To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁷ After four years had passed, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go to Hebron to fulfill a vow I have made to the LORD. ⁸ For your servant made a vow while dwelling in Geshur of Aram, saying: ‘If indeed the LORD brings me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the LORD in Hebron.’” ⁹ “Go in peace,” said the king. So Absalom got up and went to Hebron.

⁹ In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people. ¹⁰ But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

¹ Better a dry morsel in quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.

²⁷ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!

²⁸ Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.

²⁸ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue; the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.

²² She makes coverings for her bed; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

¹⁶ How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how delightful! The soft grass is our bed.

⁷ Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel. ⁸ All are skilled with the sword, experienced in warfare. Each has his sword at his side prepared for the terror of the night. ⁹ King Solomon has made his carriage out of the timber of Lebanon. ¹⁰ He has made its posts of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple fabric. Its interior is inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

⁹ The workers in flax will be dismayed, and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale.

⁷ Of embroidered fine linen from Egypt they made your sail, which served as your banner. Of blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah they made your awning.

²² Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

²³ “Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane,

⁸ All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces of ivory the harps make you glad.

⁶ Who is this coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from all the spices of the merchant?

¹³ Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard, ¹⁴ with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.

⁷ On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices. ⁸ Behind the door and doorpost you have set up your memorial. Forsaking Me, you uncovered your bed; you climbed up and opened it wide. And you have made a pact with those whose bed you have loved; you have gazed upon their nakedness. ⁹ You went to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes. You have sent your envoys a great distance; you have descended even to Sheol itself.

¹¹ On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.

⁴³ But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.

⁴⁸ But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’

³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey who left his house, put each servant in charge of his own task, and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch. ³⁵ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning. ³⁶ Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping.

³⁹ But understand this: If the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

⁴⁵ But suppose that servant says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and he begins to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk. ⁴⁶ The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

⁴ Behold, I am about to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God to dedicate to Him for burning fragrant incense before Him, for displaying the showbread continuously, and for making burnt offerings every morning and evening as well as on the Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is ordained for Israel forever.

¹⁵ “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!” ¹⁶ Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death, ¹⁷ Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.”

²³ Saul refused, saying, “I will not eat.” But his servants joined the woman in urging him, and he heeded their voice. He got up from the ground and sat on the bed.

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.

² They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

⁵ that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.

²³ So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.

²⁹ But they pleaded with Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them.

¹⁵ And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.

²⁷ You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet.

² he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

¹³ The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates, hoping to offer a sacrifice along with the crowds.

²⁴ On receiving this order, he placed them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

⁸ followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted, ⁹ but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

¹⁷ How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!

¹⁸ But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

¹² For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

¹ Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

³² Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways. ³³ Listen to instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.

¹⁴ I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

¹⁹ My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

¹⁷⁶ I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.

²³ He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

³¹ Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. ³² In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper. ³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.

⁶ We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

²¹ Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.

⁶ During the war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner had continued to strengthen his position in the house of Saul. ⁷ Meanwhile, Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. So Ish-bosheth questioned Abner, “Why did you sleep with my father’s concubine?” ⁸ Abner was furious over Ish-bosheth’s accusation. “Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah?” he asked. “All this time I have been loyal to the house of your father Saul, to his brothers, and to his friends. I have not delivered you into the hand of David, but now you accuse me of wrongdoing with this woman!

²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.

⁹ Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ ¹¹ This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.

¹ King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. ² These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

²⁶ Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.

³³ Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.

⁸ We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

²¹ I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. ¹⁹ None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.

²⁶ And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

¹⁵ But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.