1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, and incline thine eare vnto my knowledge. 2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge. 3 For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle. 4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde. 5 Her feete goe downe to death, and her steps take holde on hell. 6 She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them. 7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth. 8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house, 9 Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell: 10 Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger, 11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie) 12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction! 13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me! 14 I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie. 15 Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and of the riuers out of the middes of thine owne well. 16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes. 17 But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee. 18 Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth. 19 Let her be as the louing hinde and pleasant roe: let her brests satisfie thee at all times, and delite in her loue continually. 20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger? 21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes. 22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne. 23 Hee shall die for fault of instruction, and shall goe astray through his great follie.
Proverbs · Geneva Bible (1599)
Proverbs 5 Geneva Bible (1599)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Original 16th-century spelling.
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)