Proverbs 7:21–25

³¶ For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

⁵That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

⁸¶ And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.

²⁹But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

²They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

¹⁴For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

¹⁵¶ And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

¹⁶And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;

¹⁷That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a rasor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

²⁴To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

²³But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, compelled him; and he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.

¹⁵And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

²³And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

²⁷Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.

¹³Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.

²⁴Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

²Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.

¹²For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

¹⁸But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

⁸And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

⁹And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

¹⁷Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

⁷Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

¹HEAR, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

¹MY little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

¹⁹My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

³²Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.

³³Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

¹⁴I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

¹⁵For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

²⁵Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

²⁸But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

³¹Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

³²At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

³³Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

¹⁴¶ Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

¹⁵Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

²³He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

¹⁷⁶I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.