Avoiding Immorality
Leviticus 20:10–21; 1 Corinthians 5:1–8
1My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:+ 2So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.+ 3For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;+ 4But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;+ 5Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;+ 6She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.+ 7Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.+ 8Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;+ 9For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:+ 10And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;+ 11And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;+ 12And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;+ 13I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!+ 14I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.+ 15Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.+ 16Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.+ 17Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. 18Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.+ 19As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.+ 20Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?+ 21For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.+ 22The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.+ 23He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.+