Temptation

¹² So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

¹³ No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.

¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

⁸ But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care.

⁹ No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”

¹⁰ Although Potiphar’s wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be near her.

¹¹ One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside.

¹² She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

¹ King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

² These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

³ He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

⁴ For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.

¹ In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

³ So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

⁴ Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

When He came to the place, He told them, “Pray that you will not enter into temptation.”

“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them.

³ Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴ in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶ She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

⁹ lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

²³ For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶ For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

²⁷ Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

²⁶ For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.

²⁷ Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

²⁷ For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸ Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰ Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks.

³¹ Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

³² In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.

³ Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.

⁴ Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing or take part in works of wickedness with men who do iniquity; let me not feast on their delicacies.

Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

² The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,

³ but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not surely die,” the serpent told her.

⁵ “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

⁶ So Potiphar left all that he owned in Joseph’s care; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,

⁷ and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

¹ Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

² where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.

³ The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴ But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

⁵ Then the devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

⁶ “I will give You authority over all these kingdoms and all their glory,” he said. “For it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish.

¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

² After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

³ The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple.

⁶ “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

⁸ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

⁹ “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”

These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

So David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do with him as you wish.’” Then David crept up secretly and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

¹² At once the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness,

¹³ and He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels ministered to Him.

¹ While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

² who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.

Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me thrust the spear through him into the ground with one stroke. I will not need to strike him twice!”

³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

³¹ “First sell me your birthright,” Jacob replied.

³² “Look,” said Esau, “I am about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”

So you are not to associate with these nations that remain among you. You must not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and you must not serve them or bow down to them.

⁷ So if You worship me, it will all be Yours.”

⁸ But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

⁹ Then the devil led Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple. “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down from here.

When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

⁷ All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods

⁸ and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel.

³¹ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern,

³² until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey—so that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, for he misleads you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’

With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.