Proverbs 9:17
“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”
BSB
ASV
Stolen waters are sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
KJV
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
"The foolish and bold woman comes to want bread." What bread? Surely that bread which comes down from heaven. And he immediately adds, "The earth-born perish in her house, rush into the depths of hell." Who are the earth-born that perish in her house? They of course who follow the first Adam, who is of the earth, and not the second, who is from heaven.
Stolen waters are sweet,.... Wells and fountains of waters in those hot countries were very valuable, and were the property of particular persons; about which there were sometimes great strife and contention; and they were sometimes sealed and kept from the use of others; see Gen 26:18; now waters got by stealth from such wells and fountains were sweeter than their own, or what might be had in common and without difficulty, to which the proverb alludes.
The besetting sin of all times and countries, the one great proof of the inherent corruption of man’s nature. Pleasures are attractive because they are forbidden (compare Rom 7:7).
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Genesis 3:6When 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…
leads to
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.
And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.
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.
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…
Through
Proverbs 20:17Food gained by fraud is sweet to a man, but later his mouth is full of gravel.
leads to
Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes,…
“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”
Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
