Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
the Week of Proper 13 / Ordinary 18
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Bible in Basic English

Proverbs 2:18

For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Chastity;   Lasciviousness;   Righteousness;   Wicked (People);   Wisdom;   Women;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Harlots;   Women;   The Topic Concordance - Straying;   Understanding;   Whoredom;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Alliance and Society with the Enemies of God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Rephaim;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Prostitution;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Giants;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;   Medicine;   Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Giant;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Death;   Rephaim;   Sheol;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Didache;   Menander;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
for her house sinks down to deathand her ways to the land of the departed spirits.
Hebrew Names Version
For her house leads down to death, Her paths to the dead.
King James Version
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
English Standard Version
for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;
New Century Version
Her house is on the way to death; those who took that path are now all dead.
New English Translation
For her house sinks down to death, and her paths lead to the place of the departed spirits.
Amplified Bible
For her house leads down to death And her paths lead to the dead;
New American Standard Bible
For her house sinks down to death, And her tracks lead to the dead;
World English Bible
For her house leads down to death, Her paths to the dead.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Surely her house tendeth to death, and her paths vnto the dead.
Legacy Standard Bible
For her house sinks down to deathAnd her tracks descend to the dead;
Berean Standard Bible
For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
Contemporary English Version
The road to her house leads down to the dark world of the dead.
Complete Jewish Bible
Her house is sinking toward death, her paths lead to the dead.
Darby Translation
—for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead;
Easy-to-Read Version
Going into her house leads to death. She will lead you to the grave.
George Lamsa Translation
For she has forgotten the threshold of her house and the way of her paths.
Good News Translation
If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead.
Lexham English Bible
for her house sinks to death, and to the dead are her paths.
Literal Translation
For her house leads down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For hir house is enclyned vnto death, and hir pathes vnto hell.
American Standard Version
For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For her house sinketh down unto death, and her paths unto the shades;
King James Version (1611)
For her house inclineth vnto death, and her pathes vnto the dead:
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For her house is enclined vnto death, and her pathes vnto hell.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the giants.
English Revised Version
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead:
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and hath foryete the couenaunt of hir God. For the hous of hir is bowid to deeth, and hir pathis to helle.
Update Bible Version
For her house inclines to death, And her paths to the dead;
Webster's Bible Translation
For her house inclineth to death, and her paths to the dead.
New King James Version
For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead;
New Living Translation
Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to the grave.
New Life Bible
For her house goes down to death, and her steps lead to the dead.
New Revised Standard
for her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For she hath appointed, unto death, her house, and unto the shades, her courses;
Douay-Rheims Bible
And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.
Revised Standard Version
for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the shades;
Young's Literal Translation
For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead;

Contextual Overview

10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul; 11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you; 12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false; 13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads; 14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner; 15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil: 16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue; 17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind: 18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades: 19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 5:4-14, Proverbs 6:26-35, Proverbs 7:22-27, Proverbs 9:18, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:5, Revelation 21:8, Revelation 22:15

Reciprocal: Proverbs 5:5 - General Proverbs 6:32 - destroyeth Proverbs 7:27 - General Proverbs 15:24 - that Proverbs 21:16 - remain Ecclesiastes 7:26 - I find

Cross-References

Genesis 1:31
And God saw everything which he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:9
And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come, delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:11
The name of the first is Pishon, which goes round about all the land of Havilah where there is gold.
Genesis 2:12
And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
Genesis 2:13
And the name of the second river is Gihon: this river goes round all the land of Cush.
Genesis 3:12
And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I took it.
Ruth 3:1
And Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, am I not to get you a resting-place where you may be in comfort?
Proverbs 18:22
Whoever gets a wife gets a good thing, and has the approval of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 7:36
But if, in any man's opinion, he is not doing what is right for his virgin, if she is past her best years, and there is need for it, let him do what seems right to him; it is no sin; let them be married.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For her house inclineth unto death,.... Bends, verges, and points that way; it lies in the way to death, and brings unto it, and sinks into it as into a ditch; or all that are in her house, that are familiar with her, live and dwell with her, and commit wickedness with her; these incline or are liable to lose, and do lose, their name, character, and reputation, which is a death upon them; and bring diseases upon their bodies, which issue in corporeal death; or are in danger of dying by the hand of the injured husband, or the civil magistrate; and also are exposed unto eternal death: or "she inclines to death, which is her house" x, so Aben Ezra and Kimchi; and to which the Targum agrees,

"for in the pit of death is her house:''

that is, the house she at last comes to and must dwell in, and all that are ensnared by her; see Proverbs 5:5; and the second death will be the portion of the whore of Rome and all her followers,

Revelation 14:10;

and her paths unto the dead; that is, her evil ways in which she walks, and into which she draws others to join with her; these lead both her and them to the "damned" y in hell, to keep company with them, and be punished as they are: the word "rephaim", here used, sometimes signifies "giants", and so the Targum renders it here; and may refer to the giants of the old world, who were cut off for their debauchery and uncleanness, Genesis 6:4; and with whom such persons shall be for ever.

x אל מות בתיה "ad mortem quoad domum suam", Cocceius; "ad mortem domum suam", Gejerus; "quod ad domum suam", Michaelis. y אל רפאים "ad damnatos", Tigurine version; "ad orcinos", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The house of the adulteress is as Hades, the realm of death, haunted by the spectral shadows of the dead (Rephaim, see the Psalms 88:10 note), who have perished there.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 2:18. For her house inclineth unto death — It is generally in by and secret places that such women establish themselves. They go out of the high road to get a residence; and every step that is taken towards their house is a step towards death. The path of sin is the path of ruin: the path of duty is the way of safety. For her paths incline unto the dead, רפאים repheim, the inhabitants of the invisible world. The woman who abandons herself to prostitution soon contracts, and generally communicates, that disease, which, above all others, signs the speediest and most effectual passport to the invisible world. Therefore it is said,


 
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