5 Warning Against Adultery

5:1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, ²that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. ³For the lips of a forbidden 1] woman drip honey, and her speech[2] is smoother than oil, ⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to[3] Sheol; ⁶she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. ⁸Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, ⁹lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, ¹⁰lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, ¹¹and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, ¹²and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. ¹⁴I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. ¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? ¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. ¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, ¹⁹ a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated[4] always in her love. ²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?^[5]²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders[6] all his paths. ²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. ²³He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

6 Practical Warnings

6:1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, ²if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, ³then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten,[7] and plead urgently with your neighbor. ⁴Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; ⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,[8] like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. ⁷Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, ⁸she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. ⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? ¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, ¹³winks with his eyes, signals[9] with his feet, points with his finger, ¹⁴with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; ¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: ¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, ¹⁹a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Warnings Against Adultery

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. ²¹Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. ²²When you walk, they^[10]will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. ²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, ²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman,^[11]from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.^[12]²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; ²⁶for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,[13] but a married woman[14] hunts down a precious life. ²⁷Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? ²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished. ³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, ³¹but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house. ³²He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. ³³Wounds and dishonor will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away. ³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. ³⁵He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

[1] Hebrew strange; also verse 20 [2] Hebrew palate [3] Hebrew lay hold of [4] Hebrew be led astray; also verse 20 [5] Hebrew a foreign woman [6] Or makes level [7] Or humble yourself [8] Hebrew lacks of the hunter [9] Hebrew scrapes [10] Hebrew it; three times in this verse [11] Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbor [12] Hebrew the foreign woman [13] Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread [14] Hebrew a man’s wife