Proverbs · Bible in Basic English
Proverbs 5 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;
5 Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
Cross references (22)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Proverbs 22:17; Proverbs 4:20; Revelation 2:11; Proverbs 2:1; Revelation 3:13
- 2 Proverbs 16:23; Malachi 2:6–7; Proverbs 15:7; Song of Songs 4:11; Proverbs 10:21
- 3 Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:21; Psalm 55:21; Proverbs 7:5
- 4 Ecclesiastes 7:26; Psalm 57:4; Psalm 55:21; Hebrews 4:12; Proverbs 9:18
- 5 Proverbs 7:27; Proverbs 2:18–19
- 6 Proverbs 4:26; Psalm 16:11; Proverbs 5:21; Proverbs 30:20; Psalm 119:59
- 7 Proverbs 4:1; Proverbs 22:17–21; Proverbs 7:24; Proverbs 4:21; Hebrews 12:25
- 8 Proverbs 7:25; Ephesians 5:11; Matthew 6:13; Proverbs 4:15; Proverbs 6:27–28
- 9 Nehemiah 13:26; Hosea 4:13–14; Judges 16:19–21; Genesis 38:23–26
- 10 Hosea 7:9; Proverbs 6:35; Proverbs 31:3; Luke 15:30
- 11 Romans 6:21; Revelation 22:15; Hebrews 13:4; Numbers 5:27; 1 Corinthians 5:4–5
- 12 Proverbs 12:1; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 15:5; Proverbs 1:25; Proverbs 1:22
- 13 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Hebrews 13:7; Luke 15:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13
- 14 Proverbs 13:20; 2 Peter 2:10–18; 1 Corinthians 10:6–8; Hosea 4:11–14; Numbers 25:1–6
- 15 1 Corinthians 7:2–5; Hebrews 13:4; Proverbs 5:18–19
- 16 Psalm 128:3; Psalm 127:3; Deuteronomy 33:28; Genesis 24:60; Isaiah 48:21
- 18 Ecclesiastes 9:9; Malachi 2:14–15; Song of Songs 4:15; Song of Songs 4:12
- 19 Song of Songs 7:3; Song of Songs 4:5; Song of Songs 8:14; Song of Songs 2:9; Proverbs 5:15
- 20 Proverbs 7:5; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 23:27–28; 1 Kings 11:1; Proverbs 23:33
- 21 Hebrews 4:13; Proverbs 15:3; Job 34:21; Jeremiah 32:19; Jeremiah 16:17
- 22 Proverbs 1:31–32; Proverbs 11:5; Hosea 4:11–14; Ephesians 5:5–6; Proverbs 1:18
- 23 Job 36:12; Job 4:21; 2 Peter 2:15–22; Proverbs 14:32; Proverbs 10:21
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… in man." For He called all men that mourn; and granting forgiveness to those who had been led into captivity by their sins, He loosed them from their chains, of whom Solomon says, "Every one shall be holden with the cords of his own sins." Therefore did the Spirit of God descend upon Him, [the Spirit] of Him who had …
For it is even this Holy Spirit, whom the bad cannot receive, even He is that Fountain of which the Scripture saith, "Let the fountain of thy water be thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee." For all who love not God, are strangers, are antichrists.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
… "Give not heed to a bad woman: for honey droppeth from the lips of a woman that is an harlot, which, for a season, is luscious unto thy throat; but afterwards thou shalt find it more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword." Unto these last then let us listen, not unto those.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Let then thus much suffice concerning those outcasts; and now let us return to the divine Scriptures, and let us drink waters out of our own cisterns [that is, the holy Fathers ], and out of our own springing wells.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
"The wicked shall be holden with the cords of his own sins." Thereby are they deceived, whereby they would deceive.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)