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.
Proverbs 2:16-19
New International Version
16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,(A)
from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
17 who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God.[a](B)
18 Surely her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead.(C)
19 None who go to her return
or attain the paths of life.(D)
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:17 Or covenant of her God
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