Watch Your Wife

(Pro 2:16 KJV)  To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

I will vary the translation I am reading for the month.  Sometimes a different Bible will give an insight that had grown stale.  Other times it leaves me feeling like someone took all the vitamins out of the vegetables.  Today I had that feeling.  This verse stood out to me as I read in the New Century Version.  Compare what you are reading with this from the NCV,

“It will save you from the unfaithful wife who tries to lead you into adultery with pleasing words.”

Keep in mind that many of these modern “translations” are deliberately dumbed down to meet the level of intellect our schools are putting down.  In the preface this effort says, “Sentences have been kept relatively short and uncomplicated.”  So when I read this in my short and uncomplicated mind I got the impression that I needed to be alert to my wife leading me into adultery.  Not so.  The key phrases in the Hebrew are “strange woman” or “foreigner”.  They are consistently translated that way in dependable translations.

I got curious and did a search to find out the reading level of this “translation”.  I found a scale at a site called Bible Gateway.  It rates the NCV at third grade level.  For comparisons the NLT is sixth grade, the NIV is seventh grade, the NASB is 11th and the KJV is 12th.  

So?  If you are trying to teach your third grader to read then use one of these low fat versions.  If you are serious about knowing the mind of God then remember that famous German proverb, “Ohne Fleis, kein Preis.”  And keep in mind that sloth is one of the deadly sins.  I assume that applies to mental sloth as well as physical.  

The Everyday Bible, New Century Version.  Dallas:  Word Publishing, 1987.