July 11, 2022 Bible Study — Wisdom Warns Against Adultery

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Proverbs 5-8.

The proverb writer in today’s passage spends a lot of time warning against adultery.  He goes on to link committing adultery to a lack of discipline.  I also find it interesting that the phrasing suggests that the writer endorses monogamy: the writer tells us to be satisfied with the wife (singular) of our youth despite the fact that tradition attributes these proverbs to King Solomon.  After indicating that being adulterous indicates a lack of discipline, the writer warns against a few other symptoms of lack of discipline: lack of industriousness (or laziness), and being deceitful.  Then he returns to warning against adultery, against allowing our sexual desires to govern our lives.  The writer warns us that all of these poor decisions result from not listening to wisdom.  Further, the writer goes on to tell us that wisdom calls out to us if we will but listen and look for it.  Acquiring wisdom does not require hard effort, or seeking obscure sources of knowledge.  Wisdom can be acquired merely by being open to the lessons around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.