Warning Against Adultery

Proverbs 5

1 w My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
x incline your ear to my understanding,
 2 that you may keep y discretion,
and your lips may z guard knowledge.
 3 For the lips of a a forbidden 1 woman drip honey,
and her speech 2 is b smoother than oil,
 4 but in the end she is c bitter as d wormwood,
e sharp as f a two-edged sword.
 5 Her feet g go down to death;
her steps follow the path to 3 Sheol;
 6 she h does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7 And i now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
 8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
 9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
 10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your j labors go to the house of a foreigner,
 11 and at the end of your life you k groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
 12 and you say, l "How I hated discipline,
and my heart m despised reproof!
 13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
 14 n I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation."

15 Drink o water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
 16 Should your p springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water q in the streets?
 17 r Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
 18 Let your o fountain be blessed,
and s rejoice in t the wife of your youth,
 19 a lovely u deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts v fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated 4 always in her love.
 20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with w a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of w an adulteress? 5
21 For x a man's ways are y before the eyes of the Lord,
and he z ponders 6 all his paths.
 22 The a iniquities of the wicked b ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
 23 c He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is d led astray.

  1. Cross References
    Proverbs 4:20
    My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
    Proverbs 2:1 - 2
    My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you.
  2. Cross References
    Proverbs 22:17
    Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge.
  3. Cross References
    Proverbs 1:4
    To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth -
  4. Cross References
    Malachi 2:7
    For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
  5. Cross References
    Proverbs 2:16
    So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 55:21
    His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
  7. Cross References
    Ecclesiastes 7:26
    And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.
  8. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 29:18
    Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.
    Jeremiah 9:15
    Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink.
    Lamentations 3:15
    He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
    Lamentations 3:19
    Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
    Revelation 8:11
    The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.
  9. Cross References
    Psalms 57:4
    My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts - the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
    Psalms 55:21
    His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
  10. Cross References
    Psalms 149:6
    Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands.
  11. Cross References
    Proverbs 7:27
    Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
  12. Cross References
    Proverbs 5:21
    For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths.
    Proverbs 4:26
    Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
  13. Cross References
    Proverbs 4:1
    Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight.
  14. Cross References
    Psalms 127:2
    It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
  15. Cross References
    Ezekiel 24:23
    Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another.
  16. Cross References
    Proverbs 1:22
    How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
    Proverbs 1:29
    Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.
    Proverbs 12:1
    Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
  17. Cross References
    Proverbs 1:25
    Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof.
    Psalms 107:11
    For they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
  18. Cross References
    Psalms 94:17
    If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
  19. Cross References
    Proverbs 5:18
    Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
    Proverbs 9:17
    "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
    Song of Solomon 4:12
    A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed.
    Song of Solomon 4:15
    A garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.
    Jeremiah 2:13
    For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
  20. Cross References
    Psalms 68:26
    "Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you who are of Israel's fountain!"
  21. Cross References
    Jeremiah 9:21
    For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.
    Zechariah 8:5
    And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
  22. Cross References
    Proverbs 14:10
    The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
  23. Cross References
    Proverbs 5:15
    Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
  24. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 24:5
    When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
  25. Cross References
    Malachi 2:14
    But you say, "Why does he not?" Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
  26. Cross References
    Song of Solomon 2:9
    My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice.
    Song of Solomon 2:17
    Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains.
    Song of Solomon 8:14
    Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.
  27. Cross References
    Jeremiah 31:14
    I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.
  28. Cross References
    Proverbs 2:16
    So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
  29. Cross References
    Proverbs 2:16
    So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
  30. Cross References
    Psalms 119:168
    I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you.
  31. Cross References
    Hosea 7:2
    But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.
    Hebrews 4:13
    And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
    Job 14:16
    For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin.
    Psalms 11:4
    The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord 's throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
  32. Cross References
    Proverbs 5:6
    She does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
  33. Cross References
    Psalms 7:15 - 16
    He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
  34. Cross References
    Proverbs 6:2
    If you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth.
  35. Cross References
    Job 4:21
    Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?
  36. Cross References
    Job 12:24
    He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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