Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.
Parallel translations
- KJV She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.
- BSB Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.
- NKJV She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men.
- NASB Certainly she lurks as a robber, And increases the treacherous among mankind.
- NLT She hides and waits like a robber, eager to make more men unfaithful.
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
The seductress lies in wait like a robber, multiplying unfaithfulness among men.
Overview
Sexual temptation is portrayed as predatory, ambushing the unwary and spreading betrayal. The image of a lurking robber stresses that the danger actively seeks victims. The proverb calls for watchfulness against temptation, echoing the New Testament's summons to flee sexual immorality and stay alert (1 Cor. 6:18; 1 Pet. 5:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Eccl 7:26I 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.
- Prov 7:12Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.
- 1 Cor 10:8Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.
- Hos 4:11Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- Rev 17:1–2One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
- Prov 22:14The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
- Prov 2:16–19To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
- Prov 7:22–27He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.
- Jer 3:2“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
- Num 25:1Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;
- Judg 16:4–22It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
- Prov 9:18But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
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 23:28 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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