659 verses about Sexuality

The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”

David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?”

Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”

David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I was given to marry for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”

David took more concubines and wives for himself out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David.

Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the servants of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”

David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.

The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”

“This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”

David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her, and lay with her. She bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. Yahweh loved him;

After this, Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.

Amnon was so troubled that he became sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her.

He said to him, “Why, son of the king, are you so sad from day to day? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon said to him, “I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house; and he was lying down. She took dough, and kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes.

She took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. Amnon said, “Have all men leave me.” Then every man went out from him.

When she had brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my sister!”

She answered him, “No, my brother, do not force me! For no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Don’t you do this folly.

As for me, where would I carry my shame? And as for you, you will be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.”

However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.

Then Amnon hated her with exceedingly great hatred; for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Arise, be gone!”

She said to him, “Not so, because this great wrong in sending me away is worse than the other that you did to me!” But he would not listen to her.

Then he called his servant who ministered to him, and said, “Now put this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.”

She had a garment of various colors on her; for the king’s daughters who were virgins dressed in such robes. Then his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her.

Absalom her brother said to her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? But now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house.

Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.

Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, answered, “Don’t let my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men the king’s sons; for Amnon only is dead; for by the appointment of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar.

The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”

So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

Therefore his servants said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king. Let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm.”

So they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

The young lady was very beautiful; and she cherished the king, and served him; but the king didn’t know her intimately.

She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”

Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.

There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel.

The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land.

He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five.

All these were the sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines; and Tamar was their sister.

The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but, because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be listed according to the birthright.

Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

But Abijah grew mighty, and took for himself fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters.

to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown, to show the people and the princes her beauty; for she was beautiful.

For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands, when it is reported, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn’t come.’

Then the king’s servants who served him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king.

Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s house, to the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them;

Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after her purification for twelve months (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women).

In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second women’s house, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.

So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face.

“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

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

then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

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

None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,

lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”

Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

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.

Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

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

For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house.

Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving.

For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey.

He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.”

With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,

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

Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.