Proverbs 2:16

²⁶I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.

²⁴to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. ⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. ⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, ⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, ⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. ¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. ¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house. ¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. ¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: ¹⁴“Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows. ¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. ¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. ¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving. ¹⁹For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey. ²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.” ²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him. ²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose. ²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

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

²⁶Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin. ²⁷Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?”

³His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did prosper in his hand. ⁴Joseph found favor in his sight. He ministered to him, and Potiphar made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. ⁵From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. The LORD’s blessing was on all that he had, in the house and in the field. ⁶He left all that he had in Joseph’s hand. He didn’t concern himself with anything, except for the food which he ate. Joseph was well-built and handsome.

⁷After these things, his master’s wife set her eyes on Joseph; and she said, “Lie with me.”

⁸But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, my master doesn’t know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand. ⁹No one is greater in this house than I am, and he has not kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

¹⁰As she spoke to Joseph day by day, he didn’t listen to her, to lie by her, or to be with her. ¹¹About this time, he went into the house to do his work, and there were none of the men of the house inside. ¹²She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” He left his garment in her hand, and ran outside.

⁵A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil, ⁴but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.^6[+] She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it. ⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth. ⁸Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house, ⁹lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; ¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house. ¹¹You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed, ¹²and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof. ¹³I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me! ¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.” ¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. ¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? ¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. ¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. ¹⁹A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love. ²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?