the Fourth Week of Advent
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Proverbs 5
The Wisdom of Avoiding Adultery
1 Son, listen to this piece of wisdom from me. Pay attention to what I know to be true. 2 Remember to live wisely, and what you learn will keep your lips from saying the wrong thing. 3 Now, another man's wife might be very charming, and the words from her lips so sweet and inviting. 4 But in the end, she will bring only bitterness and pain. It will be like bitter poison and a sharp sword. 5 She is on a path leading to death, and she will lead you straight to the grave. 6 Don't follow her. She has lost her way and does not even know it. Be careful. Stay on the road that leads to life.
7 Now, my sons, listen to me. Don't forget the words I say. 8 Stay away from the woman who commits adultery. Don't even go near her house. 9 If you do, others will get the honor you should have had. Some stranger will get everything you worked years to get. 10 People you don't know will take all your wealth. Others will get what you worked for. 11 At the end of your life, you will be sad that you ruined your health and lost everything you had.12-13 Then you will say, "Why didn't I listen to my parents? Why didn't I pay attention to my teachers? I didn't want to be disciplined. I refused to be corrected. 14 So now I have suffered through just about every kind of trouble anyone can have, and everyone knows it."
15 Now, about sex and marriage: Drink only the water that comes from your own well, 16 and don't let your water flow out into the streets. 17 Keep it for yourself, and don't share it with strangers. 18 Be happy with your own wife. Enjoy the woman you married while you were young. 19 She is like a beautiful deer, a lovely fawn. Let her love satisfy you completely. Stay drunk on her love, 20 and don't go stumbling into the arms of another woman.
21 The Lord clearly sees everything you do. He watches where you go. 22 The sins of the wicked will trap them. Those sins will be like ropes holding them back. 23 Evil people will die because they refuse to be disciplined. They will be trapped by their own desires.
