'Astray' in the Bible

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering off, you must bring it back to him.

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray (deviates) and is unfaithful to him,

Then the priest shall have her take an oath and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness [while married], then be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse;

but if you have gone astray [while married] and you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has been intimate with you”

Moreover, he made [idolatrous] high places in the hill country of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be unfaithful [to God], and he led Judah astray [compelling the people’s cooperation].

The wicked are estranged from the womb;These go astray from birth, speaking lies [even twisted partial truths].

Before I was afflicted I went astray,But now I keep and honor Your word [with loving obedience].

I have gone astray like a lost sheep;Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.

Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an immoral womanAnd embrace the bosom of an outsider (pagan)?

He will die for lack of instruction (discipline),And in the greatness of his foolishness he will go astray and be lost.

“Whoever is naive or inexperienced, let him turn in here!”As for him who lacks understanding, she says,

“Whoever is naive or inexperienced, let him turn in here!”And to him who lacks understanding (common sense), she says,

He who learns from instruction and correction is on the [right] path of life [and for others his example is a path toward wisdom and blessing],But he who ignores and refuses correction goes off course [and for others his example is a path toward sin and ruin].

The righteous man is a guide to his neighbor,But the way of the wicked leads them astray.

He who leads the upright astray on an evil pathWill himself fall into his own pit,But the blameless will inherit good.

For those who lead this people are causing them to go astray;And those who are led [astray] by them are swallowed up.

The princes of Zoan have acted like fools,The princes of Memphis are deluded [and entertain false hope];Those who are the cornerstone of her tribesHave led Egypt astray.

But even these reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;They reel while seeing visions,They stagger when pronouncing judgment.

That kind of man (the idolater) feeds on ashes [and is satisfied with ashes]! A deceived mind has led him astray, so that he cannot save himself, or ask, “Is this thing [that I am holding] in my right hand not a lie?”

“For you [Babylon] have trusted and felt confident in your wickedness; you have said,‘No one sees me.’Your wisdom and your knowledge have led you astray,And you have said in your heart (mind),‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’

All of us like sheep have gone astray,We have turned, each one, to his own way;But the Lord has caused the wickedness of us all [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]To fall on Him [instead of us].

“And I have seen a foolish and an offensive thing in the prophets of Samaria:They prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to go astray.

Hear this, I am against those who have prophesied false and made-up dreams,” says the Lord, “and have told them and have made My people err and go astray by their lies and by their reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them nor do they benefit and enhance [the life of] these people in the slightest way,” says the Lord.

“My people have become lost sheep;Their shepherds have led them astray.They have made them turn aside [to the seductive places of idolatry] on the mountains.They have gone along [from one sin to another] from mountain to hill;They have forgotten their [own] resting place.

so that the house of Israel may no longer drift away from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions, but they will be My people, and I will be their God,”’ says the Lord God.”

You have not strengthened those who are weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bandaged the crippled, you have not brought back those gone astray, you have not looked for the lost; but you have ruled them with force and violence.

But the Levites who went far away from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, they shall bear the punishment for their sin and guilt.

“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of My sanctuary when the children (descendants) of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord God.

It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept My charge, and who did not go astray when the children (descendants) of Israel went astray as the [other] Levites did.

My people consult their [lifeless] wooden idol, and their [diviner’s] wand gives them oracles.For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray [morally and spiritually],And they have played the prostitute, withdrawing themselves from their God.

Thus says the Lord,“For three transgressions of Judah and for four (multiplied delinquencies)I will not reverse its punishment or revoke My word concerning it,Because they have rejected the law of the Lord [the sum of God’s instruction to His people]And have not kept His commandments;But their lies [and their idols], after which their fathers walked,Caused them to go astray.