Proverbs 5 | New International Reader’s Version

New International Reader’s Version

A warning against committing adultery

1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Listen carefully to my wise sayings. 2 Then you will continue to have good sense. Your lips will keep on speaking words of knowledge. 3 A woman who commits adultery has lips that drip honey. What she says is smoother than olive oil. 4 But in the end she is like bitter poison. She cuts like a sword that has two edges. 5 Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to the grave. 6 She doesn’t give any thought to her way of life. Her paths have no direction, but she doesn’t realise it. 7 My sons, listen to me. Don’t turn away from what I say. 8 Stay on a path far away from that evil woman. Don’t even go near the door of her house. 9 If you do, you shall lose your honour to other people. You shall give your self-respect to someone who is mean. 10 Strangers will use up all your wealth. Your hard work will make someone else rich. 11 At the end of your life you will groan. Your skin and your body will be worn out. 12 You will say, ‘How I hated to take advice! How my heart refused to be corrected! 13 I would not obey my teachers. I wouldn’t listen to those who taught me. 14 I was soon in deep trouble. It happened right in front of the whole assembly of God’s people.’ 15 Drink water from your own well. Drink running water from your own spring. 16 Should your springs pour out into the streets? Should your streams of water pour out in public places? 17 No! Let them belong to you alone. Never share them with strangers. 18 May your fountain be blessed. May the wife you married when you were young make you happy. 19 She is like a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her breasts always satisfy you. May you always be captured by her love. 20 My son, why be captured by another man’s wife? Why hug a woman who has gone astray? 21 The LORD watches your ways. He studies all your paths. 22 Sinners are trapped by their own evil acts. They are held tight by the ropes of their sins. 23 They will die because they refused to be corrected. Their sins will capture them because they were very foolish.

English Standard Version

Warning Against Adultery

1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, (Pr 2:1; Pr 4:20; Pr 22:17) 2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. (Pr 1:4; Mal 2:7) 3 For the lips of a forbidden^[1] woman drip honey, and her speech^[2] is smoother than oil, (Ps 55:21; Pr 2:16) 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. (De 29:18; Ps 55:21; Ps 57:4; Ps 149:6; Ec 7:26; Jer 9:15; La 3:15; La 3:19; Re 8:11)

De 29:18Ps 55:21Ps 57:4Ps 149:6Ec 7:26Jer 9:15La 3:15La 3:19Re 8:11

5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to^[3] Sheol; (Pr 7:27) 6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. (Pr 4:26; Pr 5:21) 7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. (Pr 4:1) 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 labors go to the house of a foreigner, (Ps 127:2) 11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, (Eze 24:23) 12 and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! (Ps 107:11; Pr 1:22; Pr 1:25; Pr 1:29; Pr 12:1)

Ps 107:11Pr 1:22Pr 1:25Pr 1:29Pr 12:1

13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. 14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.” (Ps 94:17) 15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. (Pr 5:18; Pr 9:17; So 4:12; So 4:15; Jer 2:13)

Pr 5:18Pr 9:17So 4:12So 4:15Jer 2:13

16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? (Ps 68:26; Jer 9:21; Zec 8:5) 17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. (Pr 14:10) 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, (De 24:5; Pr 5:15; Mal 2:14) 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated^[4] always in her love. (So 2:9; So 2:17; So 8:14; Jer 31:14)

So 2:9So 2:17So 8:14Jer 31:14

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?^[5] (Pr 2:16) 21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders^[6] all his paths. (Job 14:16; Ps 11:4; Ps 119:168; Pr 5:6; Ho 7:2; Heb 4:13)

Job 14:16Ps 11:4Ps 119:168Pr 5:6Ho 7:2Heb 4:13

22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. (Ps 7:15; Pr 6:2) 23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. (Job 4:21; Job 12:24)