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Proverbs · Catholic Public Domain Version

Proverbs 5 Catholic Public Domain Version

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  • Catholic
  • OT: Latin Vulgate
  • NT: Latin Vulgate
  • Catholic (73 books)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 2009
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

Notes on this text (3)

1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence, 2 so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman. 3 For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil. 4 But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell. 6 They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable. 7 Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth. 8 Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house. 9 Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel. 10 Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house, 11 and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say: 12 “Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction? 13 And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers? 14 I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.” 15 Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well. 16 Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets. 17 Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you. 18 Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth: 19 a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love. 20 Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another? 21 The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps. 22 His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins. 23 He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.

Cross references (22)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Proverbs 22:17; Proverbs 4:20; Revelation 2:11; Proverbs 2:1; Revelation 3:13
  2. 2 Proverbs 16:23; Malachi 2:6–7; Proverbs 15:7; Song of Songs 4:11; Proverbs 10:21
  3. 3 Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:21; Psalm 55:21; Proverbs 7:5
  4. 4 Ecclesiastes 7:26; Psalm 57:4; Psalm 55:21; Hebrews 4:12; Proverbs 9:18
  5. 5 Proverbs 7:27; Proverbs 2:18–19
  6. 6 Proverbs 4:26; Psalm 16:11; Proverbs 5:21; Proverbs 30:20; Psalm 119:59
  7. 7 Proverbs 4:1; Proverbs 22:17–21; Proverbs 7:24; Proverbs 4:21; Hebrews 12:25
  8. 8 Proverbs 7:25; Ephesians 5:11; Matthew 6:13; Proverbs 4:15; Proverbs 6:27–28
  9. 9 Nehemiah 13:26; Hosea 4:13–14; Judges 16:19–21; Genesis 38:23–26
  10. 10 Hosea 7:9; Proverbs 6:35; Proverbs 31:3; Luke 15:30
  11. 11 Romans 6:21; Revelation 22:15; Hebrews 13:4; Numbers 5:27; 1 Corinthians 5:4–5
  12. 12 Proverbs 12:1; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 15:5; Proverbs 1:25; Proverbs 1:22
  13. 13 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Hebrews 13:7; Luke 15:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13
  14. 14 Proverbs 13:20; 2 Peter 2:10–18; 1 Corinthians 10:6–8; Hosea 4:11–14; Numbers 25:1–6
  15. 15 1 Corinthians 7:2–5; Hebrews 13:4; Proverbs 5:18–19
  16. 16 Psalm 128:3; Psalm 127:3; Deuteronomy 33:28; Genesis 24:60; Isaiah 48:21
  17. 18 Ecclesiastes 9:9; Malachi 2:14–15; Song of Songs 4:15; Song of Songs 4:12
  18. 19 Song of Songs 7:3; Song of Songs 4:5; Song of Songs 8:14; Song of Songs 2:9; Proverbs 5:15
  19. 20 Proverbs 7:5; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 23:27–28; 1 Kings 11:1; Proverbs 23:33
  20. 21 Hebrews 4:13; Proverbs 15:3; Job 34:21; Jeremiah 32:19; Jeremiah 16:17
  21. 22 Proverbs 1:31–32; Proverbs 11:5; Hosea 4:11–14; Ephesians 5:5–6; Proverbs 1:18
  22. 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).

  1. Quotes verse 5:22 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter VII)

    … 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 …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  2. Quotes verse 5:16 Augustine of Hippo, Homilies on the First Epistle of John (Homily VII)

    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)

  3. Quotes verse 5:2–4 John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew (Homily LXXIII)

    … "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)

  4. Quotes verse 5:15 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (Lecture XVI)

    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)

  5. Quotes verse 5:22 Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Psalm XXXV)

    "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)