Proverbs 5
About ProverbsWritten by AI
Proverbs is a book of wisdom: short, memorable sayings about how to live well in God's world. Most of it is credited to Solomon, Israel's king around 950 BC, but it also gathers sayings from other wise teachers, from Agur and King Lemuel, and a collection copied out by the men of King Hezekiah some two centuries later (25:1).
Chapters 1 to 9 are longer talks, framed as a parent teaching a child, with Wisdom pictured as a woman calling out in the streets. From chapter 10 on, the book turns into collections of separate one or two line sayings. It closes with a poem in praise of a capable, God fearing woman.
The key line comes early: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Watch for the two paths, wise and foolish, and for the many sayings about speech, work, money and friendship. Remember that proverbs describe how life usually goes. They are wise patterns, not promises that every good choice is rewarded at once.
Before you read Proverbs 5Written by AI
A frank warning against adultery. The forbidden woman's words seem sweet, but the path leads to bitterness, loss and regret. The chapter then turns to the better way: delight in your own spouse and be faithful. It ends by reminding the reader that the LORD sees every path a person takes.
Avoiding Immorality
My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my insight,
that you may maintain discretion
and your lips may preserve knowledge.
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey
and her speech is smoother than oil,
in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to Sheol.
She does not consider the path of life;
she does not know that her ways are unstable.
So now, my sons, listen to me,
and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
Keep your path far from her;
do not go near the door of her house,
lest you concede your vigor to others,
and your years to one who is cruel;
lest strangers feast on your wealth,
and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
At the end of your life you will groan
when your flesh and your body are spent,
and you will say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my mentors.
I am on the brink of utter ruin
in the midst of the whole assembly.”
Drink water from your own cistern,
and running water from your own well.
Why should your springs flow in the streets,
your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone,
never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
A loving doe, a graceful fawn—
may her breasts satisfy you always;
may you be captivated by her love forever.
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,
or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD,
and the LORD examines all his paths.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him;
the cords of his sin entangle him.
He dies for lack of discipline,
led astray by his own great folly.