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Sunday, August 10th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

New Life Version

Proverbs 2:18

For her house goes down to death, and her steps lead to the dead.

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;
Bible in Basic English
For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:
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 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 much learning will be pleasing to your soul. 11 Good thinking will keep you safe. Understanding will watch over you. 12 You will be kept from the sinful man, and from the man who causes much trouble by what he says. 13 You will be kept from the man who leaves the right way to walk in the ways of darkness, 14 from the one who is happy doing wrong, and who finds joy in the way of sin. 15 His ways are not straight and are not good. 16 You will be saved from the strange woman, from the sinful woman with her smooth words. 17 She leaves the husband she had when she was young, and forgets the agreement with her God. 18 For her house goes down to death, and her steps lead to the dead. 19 None who go to her return again, and they do not find the paths 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
God saw all that He had made and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God made man from the dust of the ground. And He breathed into his nose the breath of life. Man became a living being.
Genesis 2:9
And the Lord God made to grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasing to the eyes and good for food. And He made the tree of life grow in the center of the garden, and the tree of learning of good and bad.
Genesis 2:11
The name of the first is Pishon. It flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Genesis 2:12
The gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there.
Genesis 2:13
The name of the second river is Gihon. It flows around the whole land of Cush.
Genesis 3:12
The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Ruth 3:1
Then Ruth's mother-in-law Naomi said to her, "My daughter, should I not look for a home for you, so all will be well with you?
Proverbs 18:22
He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and gets favor from the Lord.
1 Corinthians 7:36
If a man and woman expect to get married, and he thinks his desires to marry her are getting too strong, and she is getting older, they should get married. It is no sin.

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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