January 12

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;
none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
Proverbs 2:16-19

Verses 16-19 reveal the second of two specific examples of wisdom's protection. In vv.12-15 wisdom keeps one from "men of perverted speech" while these verses describe how wisdom keeps one from the "forbidden woman."

The "forbidden woman" is basically any woman who is not your wife. The Hebrew word is zarah, sometimes translated as "strange woman," or even "foreign woman." Its basic meaning is "not related to." The NIV describes her as a "wayward wife." The RSV describes her as a "loose woman." In verse 17 she is seen as having left her husband and turning away from the truths of God in which she was raised.

In application for us, the strange woman is one to whom the man is not related by marriage. It is ANY woman who is not your spouse (or ANY MAN who is not your spouse). She might be: a friend, a classmate, a date, a secretary, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc. She (or he) is anyone who would encourage or entice you to have an immoral relationship (physical or even just emotional) outside of marriage.

There are numerous Proverbs that relate to the dangers of this temptation. All of chapter five, the second half of chapter six, and all of chapter seven give sensible, spiritual counsel to avoid her. The reason for devoting so much material to her relates to the grave harvest she reaps. Those who follow after her go do their own death - like an ox lead to the slaughter (Proverbs 8:22-23).