Proverbs 5 Cross References - MSB

¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight, ² that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. ³ Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, ⁴ in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. ⁶ She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. ⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, ⁹ lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; ¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. ¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. ¹⁴ I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.” ¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. ¹⁶ Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. ¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: ¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever. ²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths. ²² The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. ²³ He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

¹ My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,

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

²⁰ My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

¹⁷ Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge—

⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁹ So then, my beloved brothers, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

¹¹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.

¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

¹³ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

² You are the most handsome of men; grace has anointed your lips, since God has blessed you forever.

¹⁵ My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure.

¹³ With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth.

²¹ The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

² The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool spouts folly.

⁷ The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but not so the hearts of fools.

²³ The heart of the wise man instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

¹⁵ There is an abundance of gold and rubies, but lips of knowledge are a rare treasure.

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

⁶ True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. ⁷ For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

²¹ His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

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

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

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

²¹ With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

² The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” 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. ⁶ I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.

⁴ Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” ⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

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.” ¹⁸ When Delilah realized that he had revealed to her all that was in his heart, she sent this message to the lords of the Philistines: “Come up once more, for he has revealed to me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came to her, bringing the money in their hands. ¹⁹ And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him. ²⁰ Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. 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.

⁴ My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. ²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. ²⁶ For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. ²⁷ Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? ²⁹ So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. ³⁰ Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger. ³¹ Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house. ³² He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. ³³ Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away. ³⁴ For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance. ³⁵ He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.

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.

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

²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well. ²⁸ Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

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.

¹² For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹⁵ See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many. ¹⁶ See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.

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.

²⁷ Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

⁵⁹ I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies.

²⁶ Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

¹² A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth, ¹³ winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

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.

¹⁹ Genuine righteousness leads to life, but the pursuit of evil brings death.

²⁰ This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, ¹⁰ and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.

²¹ My son, do not lose sight of this: Preserve sound judgment and discernment.

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

²⁴ Now, my sons, listen to me, and attend to 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. ³⁴ Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at the posts of my doorway. ³⁵ For whoever finds me finds life and obtains the favor of the LORD. ³⁶ But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

¹⁷ Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge— ¹⁸ for it is pleasing when you keep them within you and they are constantly on your lips. ¹⁹ So that your trust may be in the LORD, I instruct you today—yes, you. ²⁰ Have I not written for you thirty sayings about counsel and knowledge, ²¹ to show you true and reliable words, that you may soundly answer those who sent you?

²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?

¹⁵ Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.

²⁷ Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

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

²³ “Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.” ²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!” ²⁵ As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?” ²⁶ Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.

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.

¹³ They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. ¹⁴ I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

³⁵ He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.

³ Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.

⁹ Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.

³⁰ But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

²⁷ When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel, and she will become accursed among her people.

²⁹ If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

²³ until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

²¹ What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

⁴ When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵ hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord Jesus.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

⁸ But to the cowardly and unbelieving and sinful and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

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

⁹ “Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door.

¹³ The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?” ¹⁴ But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you.’” ²¹ But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the LORD. ²² Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.”

¹⁶ While he was still speaking, the king asked, “Have we made you the counselor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?” So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”

¹⁰ And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen. ¹¹ So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

¹⁷ For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you.

²² I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.

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

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

²⁵ because you neglected all my counsel, and wanted none of my correction,

²⁹ For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. ³⁰ They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.

²³ For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

¹ Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.

¹⁸ Poverty and shame come to him who ignores discipline, but whoever heeds correction is honored.

⁵ A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction is prudent.

⁴ Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’

⁴ Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD. ⁵ Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

¹¹ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. ¹² They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. ¹³ And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts. ¹⁴ But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

¹⁹ And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

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

⁸ Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who has given you His Holy Spirit.

¹² But we ask you, brothers, to acknowledge those who work diligently among you, who preside over you in the Lord and give you instruction. ¹³ In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work. Live in peace with one another.

⁷ Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

¹ While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab, ² who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods. ³ So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against them. ⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that His fierce anger may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ So Moses told the judges of Israel, “Each of you must kill all of his men who have joined in worshiping Baal of Peor.” 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.

²⁰ He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

¹¹ Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away understanding. ¹² My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

⁶ These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.” ⁸ We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

¹⁰ Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings. ¹¹ Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord. ¹² These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they will be destroyed. ¹³ They will receive the wages is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you. ¹⁴ Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. ¹⁵ They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. ¹⁷ These men are springs without water and clouds driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is forever reserved for them. ¹⁸ With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

⁷ In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire. ⁸ Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, they will be destroyed by the things they do instinctively. ¹¹ Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion. ¹² These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: ¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

² But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. ³ The husband should render the affection due to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife. ⁵ Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to fasting and to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

⁶⁰ And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”

²⁸ So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.

⁹ He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.

²⁶ Bless God in the great congregation; bless the LORD from the fountain of Israel.

³ Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.

³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.

²¹ They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.

⁹ Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun.

¹² My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.

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

¹⁴ Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. ¹⁵ Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

⁴ Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

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

¹⁷ Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.

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

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

¹⁴ Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

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.

¹⁶ It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words ¹⁷ who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

¹⁴ The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.

³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.

⁹ For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

¹⁶ For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.

⁴ Does He not see my ways and count my every step?

²¹ For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.

⁴ The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

³ You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth.

¹⁶⁸ I obey Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me. ² You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar. ³ You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways. ⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD. ⁵ You hem me in behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me. ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. ⁷ Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? ⁸ If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle by the farthest sea, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will guide me; Your right hand will hold me fast. ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”— ¹² even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

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

¹⁷ For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.

¹⁰ I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

²⁴ “Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

¹⁹ the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

² But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

¹⁸ To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.

²³ Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²³ But if you do not do this, you will certainly sin against the LORD—and be assured that your sin will find you out.

¹⁵ He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making. ¹⁶ His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

¹⁵ The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.

³¹ So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. ³² For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

³ The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the faithless destroys them.

⁵ The righteousness of the blameless directs their path, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness.

¹⁹ Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

⁹ I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, ²¹ envy, and murder; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. ⁸ The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

²¹ Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

¹² But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

¹² So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

¹⁴ The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.

³² The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

¹⁵ They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. ¹⁷ These men are springs without water and clouds driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is forever reserved for them. ¹⁸ With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. ²⁰ If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”