Proverbs · Berean Standard Bible
Proverbs 5 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-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; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
5 Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
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 the LORD examines all his paths.
21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
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)