For a harlot is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well.
Parallel translations
- WEB For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
- KJV For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
- BSB For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
- NASB For a prostitute is a deep pit, And a strange woman is a narrow well.
- NLT A prostitute is a dangerous trap; a promiscuous woman is as dangerous as falling into a narrow well.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Sexual immorality is a deadly trap, like a deep pit or narrow well.
Overview
The prostitute and adulterous woman are pictured as a pit and well, easy to fall into and nearly impossible to escape. The imagery warns of the inescapable ruin that sexual sin brings. Proverbs' repeated warnings here guard the covenant of marriage, which Scripture upholds as honorable and pure (Heb. 13:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 1
- Prov 22:14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
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Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 23:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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