Proverbs 5
5
A Warning Against Committing Adultery
1My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Listen carefully to my wise sayings.
2Then you will continue to have good sense.
Your lips will keep on speaking words of knowledge.
3A woman who commits adultery has lips that drip honey.
What she says is smoother than olive oil.
4But in the end she is like bitter poison.
She cuts like a sword that has two edges.
5Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead straight to the grave.
6She doesn’t give any thought to her way of life.
Her paths have no direction, but she doesn’t realize it.
7My sons, listen to me.
Don’t turn away from what I say.
8Stay on a path far away from that evil woman.
Don’t even go near the door of her house.
9If you do, you will lose your honor to other people.
You will give your self-respect to someone who is mean.
10Strangers will use up all your wealth.
Your hard work will make someone else rich.
11At the end of your life you will groan.
Your skin and your body will be worn out.
12You will say, “How I hated to take advice!
How my heart refused to be corrected!
13I would not obey my teachers.
I wouldn’t listen to those who taught me.
14I was soon in deep trouble.
It happened right in front of the whole assembly of God’s people.”
15Drink water from your own well.
Drink running water from your own spring.
16Should your springs pour out into the streets?
Should your streams of water pour out in public places?
17No! Let them belong to you alone.
Never share them with strangers.
18May your fountain be blessed.
May the wife you married when you were young make you happy.
19She is like a loving doe, a graceful deer.
May her breasts always satisfy you.
May you always be captured by her love.
20My son, why be captured by another man’s wife?
Why hug a woman who has gone astray?
21The Lord watches your ways.
He studies all your paths.
22Sinners are trapped by their own evil acts.
They are held tight by the ropes of their sins.
23They will die because they refused to be corrected.
Their sins will capture them because they were very foolish.
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Proverbs 5
5
Warning Against Adultery
1 # ch. 4:20; [ch. 2:1, 2] My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
# ch. 22:17 incline your ear to my understanding,
2that you may keep #ch. 1:4 discretion,
and your lips may #Mal. 2:7guard knowledge.
3For the lips of #See ch. 2:16 a forbidden#5:3 Hebrew strange; also verse 20 woman drip honey,
and her speech#5:3 Hebrew palate is #Ps. 55:21smoother than oil,
4but in the end she is #[Eccles. 7:26] bitter as #Deut. 29:18; Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:15, 19; Rev. 8:11 wormwood,
#
Ps. 57:4; [Ps. 55:21] sharp as #See Ps. 149:6a two-edged sword.
5Her feet #See ch. 7:27go down to death;
her steps follow the path to#5:5 Hebrew lay hold of Sheol;
6she #ver. 21; ch. 4:26does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7And #See ch. 4:1now, O sons, 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,
10lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your #Ps. 127:2labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11and at the end of your life you #Ezek. 24:23groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12and you say, #ch. 1:22, 29; See ch. 12:1 “How I hated discipline,
and my heart #ch. 1:25; See Ps. 107:11despised reproof!
13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 # [Ps. 94:17] I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
15Drink #ver. 18; [ch. 9:17; Song 4:12, 15; Jer. 2:13]water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16Should your #See Ps. 68:26 springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water #[Jer. 9:21; Zech. 8:5]in the streets?
17 # [ch. 14:10] Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
18Let your #[See ver. 15 above] fountain be blessed,
and #Deut. 24:5 rejoice in #Mal. 2:14the wife of your youth,
19a lovely #Song 2:9, 17; 8:14 deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts #[Jer. 31:14]fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated#5:19 Hebrew be led astray; also verse 20 always in her love.
20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with #See ch. 2:16a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of #See ch. 2:16an adulteress?#5:20 Hebrew a foreign woman
21For #Ps. 119:168 a man’s ways are #Hos. 7:2; Heb. 4:13; See Job 14:16; Ps. 11:4 before the eyes of the Lord,
and he #ver. 6ponders#5:21 Or makes level all his paths.
22The #See Ps. 7:15, 16 iniquities of the wicked #ch. 6:2ensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 # See Job 4:21 He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is #[Job 12:24]led astray.
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