Judges 16:4

But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.”

He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days.

therefore wisdom and knowledge is granted to you. I will give you riches, wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had who have been before you had, and none after you will have.”

Don’t give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.

I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.

Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

For Yahweh of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.

Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”

Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?

For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Yahweh had given them.

but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland.

“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”

O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

“Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?”

That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.

In the lowland, Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah,

and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah, for Yahweh’s sake.

for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, my master doesn’t know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand.

As she spoke to Joseph day by day, he didn’t listen to her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

“ ‘You shall not take a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival, to uncover her nakedness, while her sister is still alive.

They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.

For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be listed among the nations.

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.

You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a male prostitute, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.

Is this the way you repay Yahweh, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.

Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you.”

When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.

Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into David’s city, until he had finished building his own house, Yahweh’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem.

Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;

So he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

Again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him, “Man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty of your servants, be precious in your sight.

So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from which were made vessels for Yahweh’s house, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in Yahweh’s house continually all the days of Jehoiada.

In those days I saw some men treading wine presses on the Sabbath in Judah, bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys; also with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day in which they sold food.

Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.

“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable deeds. There is no one who does good.

So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.

I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly.

to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.

that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, but a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding.

The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools crowns them with folly.

A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool.

Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.

The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit. He who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.

For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.

Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools!

As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.

Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.

I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.

He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.

You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way;

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.