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Proverbs 5 :: Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Avoid Seduction
Pro 5:1

My son, pay attention to my wisdom;

listen closely[fn] to my understanding

Pro 5:2

so that you may maintain discretion

and your lips safeguard knowledge.

Pro 5:3

Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey

and her words are[fn] smoother than oil,

Pro 5:4

in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood

and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

Pro 5:5

Her feet go down to death;

her steps head straight for Sheol.

Pro 5:6

She doesn’t consider the path of life;

she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

Pro 5:7

So now, sons, listen to me,

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

Pro 5:8

Keep your way far from her.

Don’t go near the door of her house.

Pro 5:9

Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others

and your years to someone cruel;

Pro 5:10

strangers will drain your resources,

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

Pro 5:11

At the end of your life, you will lament

when your physical body has been consumed,

Pro 5:12

and you will say, “How I hated discipline,

and how my heart despised correction.

Pro 5:13

“I didn’t obey my teachers

or listen closely[fn] to my instructors.

Pro 5:14

“I am on the verge of complete ruin

before the entire community.”

Enjoy Marriage
Pro 5:15

Drink water from your own cistern,

water flowing from your own well.

Pro 5:16

Should your springs flow in the streets,

streams in the public squares?

Pro 5:17

They should be for you alone

and not for you to share with strangers.

Pro 5:18

Let your fountain be blessed,

and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.

Pro 5:19

A loving deer, a graceful doe[fn] —

let her breasts always satisfy you;

be lost in her love forever.

Pro 5:20

Why, my son, would you lose yourself

with a forbidden woman

or embrace a wayward woman?

Pro 5:21

For a man’s ways are before the LORD’s eyes,

and he considers all his paths.

Pro 5:22

A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him;

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

Pro 5:23

He will die because there is no discipline,

and be lost because of his great stupidity.

CSB Footnotes
Lit wisdom; stretch out your ear
Lit her palate is
Lit or turn my ear
Or graceful mountain goat
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Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017, 2020 by Holman Bible Publishers.

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Proverbs Chapter 5 — Additional Translations: