Proverbs 5–7

AVOID SEDUCTION

5My son, pay attention to my wisdom;

listen closely^D to my understanding^u

²so that you may maintain discretion

and your lips safeguard knowledge.^v

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey

and her words are^E smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood^w

and as sharp as a double-edged sword.^x

⁵Her feet go down to death;

her steps head straight for Sheol.^y

⁶She doesn’t consider the path of life;

she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

⁷So now, sons, listen to me,

and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth.^z

⁸Keep your way far from her.

Don’t go near the door of her house.^aa

⁹Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others

and your years to someone cruel;

¹⁰strangers will drain your resources,

and your hard-earned pay will end up in a foreigner’s house.

¹¹At the end of your life, you will lament

when your physical body has been consumed,

¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline,

and how my heart despised correction.^ab

¹³I didn’t obey my teachers

or listen closely^F to my instructors.

¹⁴I am on the verge of complete ruin

before the entire community.”

ENJOY MARRIAGE

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,

water flowing from your own well.^ac

¹⁶Should your springs flow in the streets,

streams in the public squares?^a

¹⁷They should be for you alone

and not for you to share with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed,

and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.^b

¹⁹A loving deer, a graceful doe^A—

let her breasts always satisfy you;^c

be lost in her love forever.

²⁰Why, my son, would you lose yourself

with a forbidden woman

or embrace a wayward woman?^d

²¹For a man’s ways are before the Lord’s eyes,^e

and he considers all his paths.^f

²²A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him;^g

he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin.^h

²³He will die because there is no discipline,ⁱ

and be lost because of his great stupidity.

FINANCIAL ENTANGLEMENTS

6My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor^B

or entered into an agreement with^C a stranger,^j

²you have been snared by the words of your mouth

trapped by the words from your mouth.

³Do this, then, my son, and free yourself,

for you have put yourself in your neighbor’s power:

Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.

⁴Don’t give sleep to your eyes

or slumber to your eyelids.^k

⁵Escape like a gazelle from a hunter,^D

like a bird from a hunter’s trap.^Dl

LAZINESS

⁶Go to the ant,^m you slacker!ⁿ

Observe its ways and become wise.

⁷Without leader, administrator, or ruler,

⁸it prepares its provisions in summer;

it gathers its food during harvest.^o

⁹How long will you stay in bed, you slacker?

When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the arms to rest,

¹¹and your poverty will come like a robber,

your need, like a bandit.^p

THE MALICIOUS MAN

¹²A worthless person,^q a wicked man

goes around speaking dishonestly,^r

¹³winking^s his eyes, signaling with his feet,

and gesturing with his fingers.

¹⁴He always plots evil^t with perversity in his heart;

he stirs up trouble.^u

¹⁵Therefore calamity will strike him suddenly;

he will be shattered instantly, beyond recovery.^v

WHAT THE LORD HATES

¹⁶The Lord hates six things;

in fact, seven are detestable to him:

¹⁷arrogant eyes,^w a lying tongue,^x

hands that shed innocent blood,^y

¹⁸a heart that plots wicked schemes,^z

feet eager to run to evil,^aa

¹⁹a lying witness who gives false testimony,^ab

and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.^ac

WARNING AGAINST ADULTERY

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command,

and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.^ad

²¹Always bind them to your heart;

tie them around your neck.^ae

²²When you walk here and there, they will guide you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

when you wake up, they will talk to you.

²³For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light,^af

and corrective discipline is the way to life.^ag

²⁴They will protect you from an evil woman,^A

from the flattering tongue of a wayward woman.^ah

²⁵Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty^a

or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.^b

²⁶For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^B

but the wife of another man^C goes after a precious life.^c

²⁷Can a man embrace fire

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on burning coals

without scorching his feet?

²⁹So it is with the one who sleeps with

another man’s wife;

no one who touches her will go unpunished.^d

³⁰People don’t despise the thief if he steals

to satisfy himself when he is hungry.^e

³¹Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much;^f

he must give up all the wealth in his house.

³²The one who commits adultery^D lacks sense;

whoever does so destroys himself.^g

³³He will get a beating^E and dishonor,

and his disgrace will never be removed.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a husband,^h

and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not be appeased by anything

or be persuaded by lavish bribes.

7My son, obey my words,

and treasure my commands.ⁱ

²Keep my commands and live,^j

and guard my instructions

as you would the pupil of your eye.^k

³Tie them to your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.^l

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”^m

and call understanding your relative.

⁵She will keep you from a forbidden woman,

a wayward woman with her flattering talk.ⁿ

A STORY OF SEDUCTION

⁶At the window of my house

I looked through my lattice.^o

⁷I saw among the inexperienced,^A

I noticed among the youths,

a young man lacking sense.

⁸Crossing the street near her corner,

he strolled down the road to her house

⁹at twilight, in the evening,

in the dark of the night.^p

¹⁰A woman came to meet him

dressed like a prostitute,^q

having a hidden agenda.^B

¹¹She is loud and defiant;^r

her feet do not stay at home.^s

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares,^t

she lurks at every corner.^u

¹³She grabs him and kisses him;

she brazenly says^C to him,

¹⁴“I’ve made fellowship offerings;

today I’ve fulfilled my vows.^v

¹⁵So I came out to meet you,

to search for you, and I’ve found you.

¹⁶I’ve spread coverings on my bed^w—

richly colored linen from Egypt.^x

¹⁷I’ve perfumed my bed

with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.^y

¹⁸Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning.^z

Let’s feast on each other’s love!

¹⁹My husband isn’t home;

he went on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of silver with him

and will come home at the time of the full moon.”

²¹She seduces him with her persistent pleading;

she lures with her flattering talk.

²²He follows her impulsively

like an ox going to the slaughter,

like a deer bounding toward a trap^D

²³until an arrow pierces its^E liver,^aa

like a bird darting into a snare^ab—

he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, sons, listen to me,

and pay attention to the words from my mouth.

²⁵Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways;

don’t stray onto her paths.^ac

²⁶For she has brought many down to death;

her victims are countless.^A

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol,

descending to the chambers of death.^a