Proverbs 5:1-14

Warning Against Adultery

1 ¹My son, be attentive to my wisdom; ²incline your ear to my understanding,

2 that you may keep ³discretion, and your lips may ⁴guard knowledge.

3 For the lips of ⁵a forbidden^[a] woman drip honey, and her speech^[b] is ⁶smoother than oil,

4 but in the end she is ⁷bitter as ⁸wormwood, ⁹sharp as ¹⁰a two-edged sword.

5 Her feet ¹¹go down to death; her steps follow the path to^[c] Sheol;

6 she ¹²does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7 And ¹³now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,

9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,

10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your ¹⁴labors go to the house of a foreigner,

11 and at the end of your life you ¹⁵groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

12 and you say, ¹⁶“How I hated discipline, and my heart ¹⁷despised reproof!

13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

14 ¹⁸I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation. ”

Proverbs 5:1-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 5

The general instruction of this chapter is to avoid whoredom, and make use of lawful marriage, and keep to that. It is introduced with an exhortation to attend to wisdom and understanding, Pr 5:1,2; one part of which lies in shunning an adulterous woman; who is described by her flattery, with which she deceives; by the end she brings men to, which is destruction and death; and by the uncertainty of her ways, which cannot be known, Pr 5:3-6. Wherefore men are advised to keep at the utmost distance from her, Pr 5:7,8; lest their honour, strength, wealth, and labours, be given to others, Pr 5:9,10; and repentance and mourning follow, when too late, Pr 5:11-14. And, as a remedy against whoredom, entering into a marriage state is advised to, and a strict regard to that; allegorically expressed by a man's drinking water out of his fountain, and by his wife being as a loving hind and pleasant roe to him, the single object of his affections, Pr 5:15-19. As also the consideration of the divine omniscience is proposed, to deter him from the sin of adultery, Pr 5:20,21; as well as the inevitable ruin wicked men are brought into by it, Pr 5:22,23.

Cross References

• 1. 5:1 ch. 4:20; [ch. 2:1, 2]
• 2. 5:1 ch. 22:17
• 3. 5:2 ch. 1:4
• 4. 5:2 Mal. 2:7
• 5. 5:3 See ch. 2:16
• 6. 5:3 Ps. 55:21
• 7. 5:4 [Eccles. 7:26]
• 8. 5:4 Deut. 29:18; Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:15, 19; Rev. 8:11
• 9. 5:4 Ps. 57:4; [Ps. 55:21]
• 10. 5:4 See Ps. 149:6
• 11. 5:5 See ch. 7:27
• 12. 5:6 ver. 21; ch. 4:26
• 13. 5:7 See ch. 4:1
• 14. 5:10 Ps. 127:2
• 15. 5:11 Ezek. 24:23
• 16. 5:12 ch. 1:22, 29; See ch. 12:1
• 17. 5:12 ch. 1:25; See Ps. 107:11
• 18. 5:14 [Ps. 94:17]

Footnotes

• [a] 5:3 Hebrew 'strange'; also verse 20
• [b] 5:3 Hebrew 'palate'
• [c] 5:5 Hebrew 'lay hold of'