Proverbs · Young's Literal Translation
Proverbs 5 Young's Literal Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep.
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And smoother than oil [is] her mouth,
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4 And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of.
5 Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 The path of life — lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths — thou knowest not.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
7 And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house,
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
9 Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
10 Lest strangers be filled [with] thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger,
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
11 And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 And hast said, 'How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
13 And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
16 Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth,
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
20 And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
21 For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.
21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
22 His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
23 He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!
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)