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Avoiding Immorality

(Leviticus 20:10-21; 1 Corinthians 5:1-8)

¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,² that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.³ Though the lips of the forbidden woman^(a) drip honey and her speech^(a) is smoother than oil,⁴ her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight^(a) 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 out of 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^(a) by her love forever.²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger^(a)?²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the Lord watches all his paths.²² The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.²³ He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.