Proverbs 5 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Warning Against Adultery

Pro 5:1

Pro 5:1My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,

Pro 5:2

Pro 5:2that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.

Pro 5:3

Pro 5:3For the lips of a forbidden[fn] woman drip honey,
and her speech[fn] is smoother than oil,

Pro 5:4

Pro 5:4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.

Pro 5:5

Pro 5:5Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to[fn] Sheol;

Pro 5:6

Pro 5:6she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

Pro 5:7

Pro 5:7And now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Pro 5:8

Pro 5:8Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,

Pro 5:9

Pro 5:9lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,

Pro 5:10

Pro 5:10lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

Pro 5:11

Pro 5:11and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,

Pro 5:12

Pro 5:12and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!

Pro 5:13

Pro 5:13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.

Pro 5:14

Pro 5:14I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”

Pro 5:15

Pro 5:15Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.

Pro 5:16

Pro 5:16Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?

Pro 5:17

Pro 5:17Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.

Pro 5:18

Pro 5:18Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

Pro 5:19

Pro 5:19a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated[fn] always in her love.

Pro 5:20

Pro 5:20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?[fn]

Pro 5:21

Pro 5:21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD,
and he ponders[fn] all his paths.

Pro 5:22

Pro 5:22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

Pro 5:23

Pro 5:23He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is led astray.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(5:3)

Hebrew strange; also verse 20

(5:3)

Hebrew palate

(5:5)

Hebrew lay hold of

(5:19)

Hebrew be led astray; also verse 20

(5:20)

Hebrew a foreign woman

(5:21)

Or makes level

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