Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, July 13th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Proverbs 2:17

Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

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

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Prostitution;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Marriage;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Covenant;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Covenant;   Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Covenant;   Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Adultery;   Covenant, in the Old Testament;   Guide;   Wisdom;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Covenant;   Didache;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
who abandons the companion of her youthand forgets the covenant of her God;
Hebrew Names Version
Who forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:
King James Version
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
English Standard Version
who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
New Century Version
She leaves the husband she married when she was young. She ignores the promise she made before God.
New English Translation
who leaves the husband from her younger days, and forgets her marriage covenant made before God.
Amplified Bible
Who leaves the companion (husband) of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God.
New American Standard Bible
Who leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;
World English Bible
Who forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:
Geneva Bible (1587)
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the couenant of her God.
Legacy Standard Bible
Who forsakes the close companion of her youthAnd forgets the covenant of her God;
Berean Standard Bible
who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
Contemporary English Version
who breaks her wedding vows and leaves the man she married when she was young.
Complete Jewish Bible
who abandons the ruler she had in her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
Darby Translation
who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God;
Easy-to-Read Version
She married when she was young, but then she left her husband. She forgot the marriage vows she made before God.
George Lamsa Translation
Who has forsaken the mother of her youth and forgotten the covenant of her God.
Good News Translation
who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows.
Lexham English Bible
she who forsakes the partner of her youth and has forgotten the covenant of her God,
Literal Translation
who forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
forsaketh the hu?bande of hir youth, and forgetteth the couenaunt of hir God.
American Standard Version
That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God:
Bible in Basic English
Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:
JPS Old Testament (1917)
That forsaketh the lord of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
King James Version (1611)
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the couenant of her God.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Forsaketh the husbande of her youth, & forgetteth the couenaunt of her God.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.
English Revised Version
Which forsaketh the friend of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God:
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and forsakith the duyk of hir tyme of mariage,
Update Bible Version
That forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:
Webster's Bible Translation
Who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
New King James Version
Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God.
New Living Translation
She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God.
New Life Bible
She leaves the husband she had when she was young, and forgets the agreement with her God.
New Revised Standard
who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Who forsaketh the friend of her youth, and, the covenant of her God, hath forgotten;
Douay-Rheims Bible
And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
Revised Standard Version
who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
New American Standard Bible (1995)
That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;

Contextual Overview

10 For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant, 11 Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee, 12 To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things, 13 Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness, 14 Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked, 15 Whose paths [are] crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways. 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings, 17 Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten. 18 For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths. 19 None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the guide: Proverbs 5:18, Jeremiah 3:4

forgetteth: Ezekiel 16:8, Ezekiel 16:59, Ezekiel 16:60, Malachi 2:14-16

Reciprocal: Numbers 5:12 - General Judges 14:17 - and she told Joel 1:8 - the husband Matthew 19:6 - God

Cross-References

Genesis 2:1
And the heavens and the earth are completed, and all their host;
Genesis 2:4
These [are] births of the heavens and of the earth in their being prepared, in the day of Jehovah God's making earth and heavens;
Genesis 2:6
and a mist goeth up from the earth, and hath watered the whole face of the ground.
Genesis 2:9
and Jehovah God causeth to sprout from the ground every tree desirable for appearance, and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:10
And a river is going out from Eden to water the garden, and from thence it is parted, and hath become four chief [rivers];
Genesis 2:12
and the gold of that land [is] good, there [is] the bdolach and the shoham stone;
Genesis 2:13
and the name of the second river [is] Gibon, it [is] that which is surrounding the whole land of Cush;
Genesis 2:18
And Jehovah God saith, `Not good for the man to be alone, I do make to him an helper -- as his counterpart.'
Genesis 2:20
And the man calleth names to all the cattle, and to fowl of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; and to man hath not been found an helper -- as his counterpart.
Genesis 2:21
And Jehovah God causeth a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he sleepeth, and He taketh one of his ribs, and closeth up flesh in its stead.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Which forsaketh the guide of her youth,.... Not God, the God of her life, and who had provided for her from her youth up; nor her parent that had taken care of her in her infancy, and had been the guardian of her virgin state; but her husband, to whom she was married in her youth, and to whom she gave up herself to be guided and directed, ruled and governed, by: and as it is an aggravation of evil in a man to deal treacherously against the wife of his youth, and the wife of his covenant, Malachi 2:14; so it is in a woman to forsake "the friend" or "companion of her youth" w, as the phrase may be rendered; who loved her and espoused her in his youthful age, and with whom he had lived long in love and friendship, and in great happiness, but now forsakes him; her affections being alienated from him, leaves his company and bed, and associates with others. Gersom interprets this of the human understanding, appointed to govern the other powers and faculties of the soul;

and forgetteth the covenant of her God: not the covenant made with Noah, in which adultery, as well as other things, were forbidden; nor the law of Moses, or covenant at Sinai, in which it was condemned; but the marriage covenant, which she entered into with her husband when espoused to him, and when they mutually obliged themselves to be faithful to one another: and this is called "the covenant of God"; not only because God is the author and institutor of marriage, and has directed and enjoined persons to enter into such a contract with one another; but because he is present at it, and is a witness of such an engagement, mid is appealed unto in it; which, as it adds to the solemnity of it, makes the violation of it the more criminal. So the church of Rome has forsook Christ, who was her guide in her first settlement, and her husband she professed to be espoused to, as a chaste virgin; and has followed other lovers, and become the mother of harlots; so false teachers leave their guide, the Scriptures, and bring in damnable heresies, and deny the Lord that bought them, 2 Peter 2:1.

w אלוף נעוריה "amieum adolescentiae suae", De Dieu, Michaelis; "socium juventutis suae", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The guide of her youth - Better, the familiar friend (compare Proverbs 16:28; Proverbs 17:9). The “friend” is, of course, the husband, or the man to whom the strange woman first belonged as a recognized concubine. Compare Jeremiah 3:4

The covenant of her God - The sin of the adulteress is not against man only but against the Law of God, against His covenant. The words point to some religious formula of espousals. Compare Malachi 2:14.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 2:17. Which forsaketh the guide of her youth — Leaves her father's house and instructions, and abandons herself to the public.

The covenant of her God. — Renounces the true religion, and mixes with idolaters; for among them prostitution was enormous. Or by the covenant may be meant the matrimonial contract, which is a covenant made in the presence of God between the contracting parties, in which they bind themselves to be faithful to each other.


 
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