Proverbs 2:16-19
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
16 [a]Saving you from a stranger,
from a foreign woman with her smooth words,(A)
17 One who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 For her path sinks down to death,
and her footsteps lead to the shades.[b](B)
19 None who enter there come back,
or gain the paths of life.
Footnotes
- 2:16–19 A second obstacle and counter-figure to Wisdom, personified as an attractive woman, is the “stranger,” or “foreigner,” from outside the territory or kinship group, hence inappropriate as a marriage partner. In Proverbs she comes to be identified with Woman Folly, whose deceitful words promise life but lead to death. Woman Folly appears also in chap. 5, 6:20–35, chap. 7 and 9:13–18. Covenant: refers to the vow uttered with divine sanction at the woman’s previous marriage, as the parallel verse suggests. She is already married and relations with her would be adulterous.
- 2:18 Shades: the inhabitants of Sheol.
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