Proverbs Chapter 5 to 6 : English Standard Version   | SearchSearch | Next Version | Previous Page | Next Page |

Other Versions5  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

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