"May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love. Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman? For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths."

Proverbs 5:18-21

Do Proverbs 5 and the other passages featuring the adulterous woman have anything to say to men, women, or youths who might read it today? Of course they do! It is undeniable that illicit sexual encounters continue to attract both men and women and that sexual temptation continues to exercise a strong force in our world today. Proverbs 5 offers at least two approaches for countering such sexual temptation. First, it exhorts the reader to think about the longer-term outcome of illicit momentary pleasures. Second, it promotes paying attention to one’s own home, family, relationships, and soul, with the intention that each of us might foster a quality of well-being from which we are unlikely to stray.

Closing Prayer

Thank you, Father, that your path set for me is for my good and the good of others. Help me to follow it with loving care and purity—with faithfulness to your Word.

(edited from Encounter with God)