The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
The book of Proverbs is a collection of ancient wisdom writings, primarily attributed to King Solomon of Israel, designed to help people navigate life with skill and godliness. This verse uses the image of an adulteress — a woman who lures a man into sexual betrayal — as a vivid symbol for any temptation that begins with appealing words and ends in ruin. In the ancient Hebrew imagination, a "deep pit" evoked a place of no escape, often associated with death or destruction. The second part of the verse is stark: falling into this trap is connected to being "under the Lord's wrath" — not necessarily as punishment for a single failure, but as a description of someone who has drifted so far from wisdom that their spiritual defenses have collapsed, leaving them dangerously exposed.
God, give me eyes to see past what sounds good to what actually is good. Sharpen my discernment where I've let it go dull through small compromises. I don't want to drift — I want to walk close enough to You that traps look like traps before I step into them. Amen.
Every trap has bait. That's what makes it a trap. The writer of Proverbs wasn't warning against a voice that sounds obviously dangerous — nobody walks into something labeled "destruction." He was warning against a voice that sounds good. Reasonable. Flattering. Worth bending the rules for, just this once. The adulteress in this proverb isn't just about one kind of betrayal — she stands in for every seduction that uses words to walk you somewhere you'd never go with your eyes fully open. A deep pit is exactly that: you don't see the bottom until you're already falling, and by then the edge is far above you. Here's the uncomfortable part: the verse ties falling into this pit to being "under the Lord's wrath." That phrase isn't meant to terrorize you into compliance — it's describing a spiritual condition. When someone has been quietly rejecting wisdom, ignoring repeated warnings, and getting very good at rationalizing the next compromise, their discernment dulls. The warnings that should land don't. The voice that should sound wrong starts sounding reasonable. This isn't about God punishing you for one stumble — it's about the slow, almost invisible danger of drift. Pay attention to what you've been rationalizing lately. The argument that feels most airtight might be exactly the one worth questioning.
This proverb uses sexual temptation as its image, but what other kinds of 'appealing voices' do you think it's warning against more broadly — and where do you personally encounter them?
Can you think of a time when something sounded completely reasonable in the moment but led you somewhere you didn't want to end up? What made the reasoning so convincing?
The verse connects falling into this trap with being 'under the Lord's wrath.' How do you understand that connection — as divine punishment, natural consequence, spiritual vulnerability, or something else?
How do you think the health of your relationship with God affects your ability to recognize and resist tempting but destructive choices in everyday life?
What is one area right now where you've been letting appealing but questionable reasoning slide without really examining it? What would it look like to honestly name it?
And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
Ecclesiastes 7:26
To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Proverbs 2:16
To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
Proverbs 6:24
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
Proverbs 5:3
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Proverbs 5:20
He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Proverbs 5:23
Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 7:27
The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit [deep and inescapable]; He who is cursed by the LORD [because of his adulterous sin] will fall into it.
AMP
The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it.
ESV
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; He who is cursed of the LORD will fall into it.
NASB
The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the Lord’s wrath will fall into it.
NIV
The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; He who is abhorred by the LORD will fall there.
NKJV
The mouth of an immoral woman is a dangerous trap; those who make the LORD angry will fall into it.
NLT
The mouth of a whore is a bottomless pit; you'll fall in that pit if you're on the outs with God.
MSG