Proverbs 5 :: New International Version (NIV)

Warning Against Adultery

Pro 5:1

Pro 5:1My son, pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight,

Pro 5:2

Pro 5:2that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

Pro 5:3

Pro 5:3For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;

Pro 5:4

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

Pro 5:5

Pro 5:5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.

Pro 5:6

Pro 5:6She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.

Pro 5:7

Pro 5:7Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.

Pro 5:8

Pro 5:8Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,

Pro 5:9

Pro 5:9lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity[fn] to one who is cruel,

Pro 5:10

Pro 5:10lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another.

Pro 5:11

Pro 5:11At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.

Pro 5:12

Pro 5:12You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!

Pro 5:13

Pro 5:13I would not obey my teachers or turn my ear to my instructors.

Pro 5:14

Pro 5:14And I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God’s people.”

Pro 5:15

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

Pro 5:16

Pro 5:16Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

Pro 5:17

Pro 5:17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

Pro 5:18

Pro 5:18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Pro 5:19

Pro 5:19A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.

Pro 5:20

Pro 5:20Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

Pro 5:21

Pro 5:21For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths.

Pro 5:22

Pro 5:22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.

Pro 5:23

Pro 5:23For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly.

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

NIV Footnotes

(5:9)

Or years

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.