Proverbs 5–7

Warning against Impurity and Infidelity

⁵My child, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,^*

²so that you may hold on to prudence,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a loose woman^h drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil,^*

⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.^*

⁵Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol.

⁶She does not keep straight to the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, my child,ⁱ listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.^*

⁸Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,^*

⁹lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰and strangers take their fill of your wealth,

and your labors go to the house of an alien,

¹¹and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!^*

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴Now I am at the point of utter ruin

in the public assembly.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets?^*

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone

and not for sharing with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,^*

¹⁹a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

May her breasts satisfy you at all times;

may you be intoxicated always by her love.^*

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman

and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?^j*

²¹For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,

and he examines all their paths.^*

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,

and they are caught in the coils of their sin.^*

²³They die for lack of discipline,

and because of their great folly they are lost.^*

Practical Admonitions

⁶My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,

if you have bound yourself to another,^k*

²you are snared by the utterance of your lips,^l

caught by the words of your mouth.

³So do this, my child, and save yourself,

for you have come into your neighbor’s power:

go, hurry,^m and plead with your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;^*

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,ⁿ

like a bird from the hand of the fowler.^*

⁶Go to the ant, you lazybones;

consider its ways and be wise.^*

⁷Without having any chief

or officer or ruler,

⁸it prepares its food in summer

and gathers its sustenance in harvest.^*

⁹How long will you lie there, O lazybones?

When will you rise from your sleep?^*

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want, like an armed warrior.^*

¹²A scoundrel and a villain

goes around with crooked speech,^*

¹³winking the eyes, shuffling the feet,

pointing the fingers,^*

¹⁴with perverted mind devising evil,

continually sowing discord;^*

¹⁵on such a one calamity will descend suddenly,

in a moment, damage beyond repair.^*

¹⁶There are six things that the Lord hates,

seven that are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,^*

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that hurry to run to evil,^*

¹⁹a lying witness who testifies falsely,

and one who sows discord in a family.^*

²⁰My child, keep your father’s commandment,

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.^*

²¹Bind them upon your heart always;

tie them around your neck.^*

²²When you walk, they^o will lead you;

when you lie down, they^p will watch over you;

and when you awake, they^q will talk with you.^*

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,

and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,^*

²⁴to preserve you from the wife of another,^r

from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.^s*

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes,^*

²⁶for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^t

but the wife of another stalks a man’s precious life.^*

²⁷Can fire be carried in the bosom

without burning one’s clothes?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals

without scorching the feet?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife;

no one who touches her will go unpunished.^*

³⁰Thieves are not despised who steal only

to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.

³¹Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold;

they will forfeit all the goods of their house.^*

³²But he who commits adultery has no sense;

he who does it destroys himself.^*

³³He will get wounds and dishonor,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,

and he will show no restraint when he takes revenge.^*

³⁵He will accept no compensation

and will refuse a bribe no matter how great.

The False Attractions of Adultery

⁷My child, keep my words

and store up my commandments with you;^*

²keep my commandments and live;

keep my teachings as the apple^u of your eye;^*

³bind them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.^*

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman,^v

from the adulteress^w with her smooth words.^*

⁶For at the window of my house

I looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I saw among the simple ones,

I observed among the youths,

a young man without sense,^*

⁸passing along the street near her corner,

taking the road to her house^*

⁹in the twilight, in the evening,

at the time of night and darkness.^*

¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him

decked out like a prostitute, with hidden intent.

¹¹She is loud and wayward;

her feet do not stay at home;^*

¹²now in the street, now in the squares,

and at every corner she lies in wait.^*

¹³She seizes him and kisses him,

and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices,

and today I have paid my vows;^*

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you,

to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings,

colored spreads of Egyptian linen;^*

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;

let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of money with him;

he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him;

with her smooth talk she compels him.^*

²²Right away he follows her

and goes like an ox to the slaughter

or bounds like a stag toward the trap^x

²³until an arrow pierces its entrails.

He is like a bird rushing into a snare,

not knowing that it will cost him his life.^*

²⁴And now, my children, listen to me,

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.^*

²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her paths.^*

²⁶For many are those she has laid low,

and numerous are her victims.^*

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,

going down to the chambers of death.^*