Logos Bible Study

Proverbs 5:8–11

The NET BibleOther versions

English

Arabic

Czech

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Simplified Chinese

Spanish

Traditional Chinese

5:8Keep yourself18 far19 from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

5:9lest you give your vigor20 to others

and your years to a cruel person,

5:10lest strangers devour21 your strength,22

and your labor23 benefit24 another man’s house.

5:11And at the end of your life25 you will groan26

when your flesh and your body are wasted away.27

Read in Logos

Footnotes

  1. 18 Heb “your way.”
  2. 19 There is a contrast made between “keep far away” (הַרְחֵק, harkheq) and “do not draw near” (וְאַל־תִּקְרַב, vé’al-tiqrav).
  3. 20 The term הוֹד (hod, “vigor; splendor; majesty”) in this context means the best time of one’s life (cf. “your best strength”), the full manly vigor that will be wasted with licentiousness. Here it is paralleled by “years,” which refers to the best years of that vigor, the prime of life. Life would be ruined by living this way, or the revenge of the woman’s husband would cut it short.
  4. 21 Or “are sated, satisfied.”
  5. 22 The word כֹּחַ (coakh, “strength”) refers to what laborious toil would produce (so a metonymy of cause). Everything that this person worked for could become the property for others to enjoy.
  6. 23 “labor, painful toil.”
  7. 24 The term “benefit” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
  8. 25 Heb “at your end.”
  9. 26 The form is the perfect tense with the vav consecutive; it is equal to a specific future within this context. The verb means “to growl, groan.” It refers to a lion when it devours its prey, and to a sufferer in pain or remorse (e.g., Ezek 24:23).
  10. 27 Heb “in the finishing of your flesh and your body.” The construction uses the Qal infinitive construct of כָּלָה (calah) in a temporal clause; the verb means “be complete, at an end, finished, spent.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Keep to a path far from her,

do not go near the door of her house,

lest you lose your honor to others

and your dignity to one who is cruel,

lest strangers feast on your wealth

and your toil enrich the house of another.

At the end of your life you will groan,

when your flesh and body are spent.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Keep your way far from her.

Don’t go near the door of her house.

Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others

and your years to someone cruel;

strangers will drain your resources,

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

At the end of your life, you will lament

when your physical body has been consumed,

NLTNew Living Translation

Stay away from her!

Don’t go near the door of her house!

If you do, you will lose your honor

and will lose to merciless people all you have achieved.

Strangers will consume your wealth,

and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor.

In the end you will groan in anguish

when disease consumes your body.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

Keep your paths far from her,

and do not go near to the door of her house,

lest you give your honor to the others,

and your years to the merciless,

lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

and you groan at your end,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

KJV 1900King James Version

Remove thy way far from her,

And come not nigh the door of her house:

Lest thou give thine honour unto others,

And thy years unto the cruel:

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth;

And thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

And thou mourn at the last,

When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,