Proverbs 5

Warning Against Adultery

1  a My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
b incline your ear to my understanding,
 2 that you may keep c discretion,
and your lips may d guard knowledge.
 3 For the lips of e a forbidden ▼
▼ Hebrew strange; also verse 20
 woman drip honey,
and her speech ▼
▼ Hebrew palate
 is h smoother than oil,
 4 but in the end she is i bitter as j wormwood,
k sharp as l a two-edged sword.
 5 Her feet m go down to death;
her steps follow the path to ▼
▼ Hebrew lay hold of
 Sheol;
 6 she o does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
 7  And p now, 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 q labors go to the house of a foreigner,
 11 and at the end of your life you r groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
 12 and you say s “How I hated discipline,
and my heart t despised reproof!
 13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
 14  u I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
 15  Drink v water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
 16 Should your w springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water x in the streets?
 17  y Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
 18 Let your z fountain be blessed,
and aa rejoice in ab the wife of your youth,
 19 a lovely ac deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts ad fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated ▼
▼ Hebrew  be led astray; also verse 20
 always in her love.
 20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with af a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of ag an adulteress? ▼
▼ Hebrew  a foreign woman

 21 For ai a man’s ways are aj before the eyes of the  Lord,
and he ak ponders ▼
▼ Or makes level
 all his paths.
 22 The am iniquities of the wicked an ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
 23  ao He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is ap led astray.
Copyright information for ESV