Proverbs 7

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

³Blessed 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.

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

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

²if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,

²³Jesus 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.

⁹But 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!”

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

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

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

³By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.

⁴If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

²¹Whoever 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.”

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him.

²By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments.

¹⁸Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

¹⁹Teach 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.

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

⁸Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

⁹Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

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.

³It 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.

⁸Go 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.

²if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,

³if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

⁶Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding.

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

¹O 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.

⁴⁹Pointing to His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers.

⁵⁰For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

²⁷As 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!”

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

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

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

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

⁸When 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.

²⁸Sisera’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?’

¹⁶As 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁴Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.

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

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

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

¹²The 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.

¹³Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

¹³Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.

¹⁴When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.

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

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

⁶You 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.

²I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

³I 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.

¹⁶The 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—

¹⁷the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”

⁹Likewise, 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,

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

³⁰And 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.

¹⁴she 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.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

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

⁵to 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.

¹³At 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.

¹⁴So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their households, denying the adversary occasion for slander.

¹⁰A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.

¹¹The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he lacks nothing of value.

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

¹⁴If one blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be counted to him as a curse.

¹⁵A constant dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike—

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

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

³All 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.”

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

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

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.

⁶Just 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.

⁷On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand,

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

³³Men 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.

⁴They 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.’

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

⁶But 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.

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

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

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

²⁸Then 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.

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

⁶To 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.

⁷There, 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.

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

⁷Of 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.

²²Behold, 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.

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

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

⁷Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty of the mightiest men of Israel.

⁸All are skilled with the sword, experienced in warfare. Each has his sword at his side prepared for the terror of the night.

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

⁷On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.

⁸Behind 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.

¹³Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates with the choicest of fruits, with henna and nard,

¹⁴with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.

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

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

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

⁴⁵But 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.

⁴⁶The 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.

³⁴It 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.

³⁵Therefore 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.

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

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

⁴³But 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.

⁴Behold, 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.

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

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

⁸One 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.

²⁹But 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.

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

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!”

¹⁶Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,

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

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

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

¹³The 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.

¹²For 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.

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

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

⁸followed the Israelite into the 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,

⁹but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

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

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

¹My 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.

³²Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.

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

¹⁴I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.

¹⁵Even 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.

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

⁶We 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.

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

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

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

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

²⁶Did 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.

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

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

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

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²These 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.

²⁷When 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.

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

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

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

¹⁸For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

¹⁹None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

²⁶And 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.