Proverbs 5: Choose faithfulness, not betrayal | Bible study

Proverbs 5:1

My child, pay close attention to the wise things I have learned. Lean in and listen to what I understand.

My son, pay close attention to my wisdom;

The father calls it 'my wisdom': something he has lived and tested. The subject that follows is one where desire can make advice hard to hear, so the call for attention is strong.

bend your ear to my understanding,

The same request in a second form. Leaning the ear in is the posture of a learner who wants every word.

קשב · qashav · listen alertly

To prick up the ears. The verb that opened the speeches of chapter 4 (4:1, 4:20).

חכמה · chokmah · skill at living

Practical skill. Here it is skill in one specific area: handling sexual temptation.

נטה · natah · lean, bend

To stretch or bend toward. In verse 13 the ruined man confesses he did not do this.

תבונה · tevunah · discernment

From bin, to tell apart. What is needed here is the ability to tell what a thing looks like from what it is.

Proverbs 5:2

Then you will keep your good sense, and your own lips will hold on to what is true.

so that you keep hold of sound judgment

The purpose of listening. The son needs the ability to think a thing through to its end before acting, which is exactly what desire switches off.

and your lips guard knowledge.

His own lips are to hold to what he knows is true. This prepares for verse 3: he will meet persuasive lips, and his own speech must already be settled.

שמר · shamar · keep, guard

To keep watch over. Judgment has to be guarded or it is lost in the moment.

מזמה · mezimmah · foresight, planning

Plural here. The capacity to think ahead to consequences, as in Proverbs 1:4.

שפה · saphah · lip

The son's lips, set against the woman's lips in the next verse.

נצר · natsar · watch, preserve

Literally 'your lips will guard knowledge'. The sentry's verb from Proverbs 4:23.

דעת · da'at · knowledge

What he has come to know from his father's teaching.

Proverbs 5:3

In the father's warning, a woman invites his son to break marriage promises. Her words seem sweet as honey and smooth as oil.

For the lips of the outsider woman drip honey,

The reason the warning is needed. The temptation begins with what she says: flattering, inviting, sweet to hear. The father admits openly that it is attractive.

and her mouth is smoother than oil;

Her talk goes down easily, with nothing in it to resist. Smooth is also the Hebrew word for flattery, so the line describes both how it feels and what it is.

שפה · saphah · lip

Her lips answer his in verse 2. The danger is in her words before anything else.

זרה · zarah · strange woman, outsider

Literally 'a strange woman': one who is outside the bounds, not yours. She is another man's wife, or a woman outside your marriage.

נטף · nataph · drip, drop

To fall in drops. The verb is also used for speech that flows from a speaker.

נפת · nophet · honey from the comb

Not the general word for honey but the pure honey that runs from the comb, the sweetest there is (Psalm 19:10).

חך · chek · palate, mouth

Literally her palate, the inside of the mouth: the organ of taste and of speech.

חלק · chalaq · smooth, slippery

Smooth, and so flattering. The same root describes her smooth words in Proverbs 2:16 and 7:5.

NASB's 'adulteress' interprets. The Hebrew is zarah, 'strange woman' (so the older versions), meaning a woman who is off limits, not necessarily a foreigner by nationality.

Proverbs 5:4

But in the end it all turns bitter, like the worst taste you can think of. It cuts like a sword that is sharp on both sides.

but her end is bitter as wormwood,

The contrast with verse 3. Honey at the start, the most bitter plant known at the finish. The affair is to be judged by its aftermath, not by its first taste.

sharp as a sword with two edges.

The smooth oil becomes a blade. What felt soft ends up cutting, and a two-edged sword cuts whichever way it moves.

אחרית · acharit · afterward, outcome

What comes after; the final outcome. Proverbs constantly asks where a thing ends. It returns in verse 11.

מר · mar · bitter

The opposite of the honey in verse 3.

לענה · la'anah · wormwood

A shrub with an intensely bitter juice, used in the Old Testament as a picture of sorrow and calamity (Lamentations 3:15).

חד · chad · sharp

Set against the smoothness of verse 3.

חרב פיות · cherev piyyot · sword of mouths

Literally 'a sword of mouths'. Hebrew calls a blade's edge its mouth because it devours. Her smooth mouth turns out to be this kind of mouth.

Proverbs 5:5

Her feet are going down to death. Her steps head straight for the grave.

Her feet go down to death;

The picture changes from taste to travel. She is on a road, and it slopes downward to death. Whoever walks with her is going where she is going.

her steps hold a straight course for the grave.

The second line intensifies the first. Her steps are locked onto Sheol like a hand gripping something. This is not an occasional risk; it is her fixed direction.

רגל · regel · foot

Feet stand for the direction of a life.

ירד · yarad · descend

The regular verb for going down to the grave.

מות · mavet · death

The same thing is said of her house in Proverbs 2:18 and 7:27.

תמך · tamak · grasp, hold fast

The verb of Proverbs 4:4, where the heart was to grasp the father's words. Her steps grasp Sheol. It returns in verse 22.

שאול · she'ol · the grave

The realm of the dead, the place no one returns from.

Proverbs 5:6

She never stops to think about the path that leads to life. Her own way wanders all over the place, and she does not even know it.

The path of life she never weighs up;

She gives no thought to where life is found. The question 'where does this lead?' is one she does not ask, so she is no guide for anyone who follows her.

her tracks wander, and she does not know it.

Her course staggers about with no fixed direction, and she is unaware of it. She is not only dangerous but lost herself.

פלס · palas · make level, weigh

The verb of Proverbs 4:26, where the son was told to do this for his own feet. She does not. In verse 21 the LORD does.

ארח · orach · path, course

With 'life': the road that leads to and consists of real life.

חיים · chayyim · life

Set against death and Sheol in verse 5.

מעגל · ma'gal · wagon track

A worn track, the rut of habit. The same word as 'paths' in verse 21.

נוע · nua · waver, stagger

To sway or wander, used of a drunk staggering and of Cain as a wanderer (Genesis 4:12).

ידע · yada · know by experience

She lacks the very thing the son's lips are to guard in verse 2.

This verse is difficult. In Hebrew the verb forms for 'she' and 'you' (masculine singular) are identical, and the line opens with a word that usually means 'lest'. So it can also be read: 'so that you do not weigh the path of life, her tracks wander and you do not know it', meaning she keeps you from thinking. Versions differ.

Proverbs 5:7

So now, children, listen to me. Do not turn away from the words I say.

So now, sons, listen to me,

'So now' marks the conclusion drawn from verses 3 to 6. Having shown what she is, the father turns to what to do. The address widens to 'sons': more than one son is being addressed. Readers of any age or sex can learn from the warning.

and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

His mouth is set against her mouth. Two voices are speaking to the son, and he must choose which to stay with.

בן · ben · son

Plural, as in Proverbs 4:1. The singular 'my son' returns in verse 20.

שמע · shama · hear and heed

Hearing that obeys. Verse 13 shows what happens when it is refused.

סור · sur · turn aside, depart

To leave the road. The father's words are the path; departing from them is how the wandering of verse 6 begins.

אמר · emer · saying, utterance

Spoken sayings, the same phrase as Proverbs 4:5.

Proverbs 5:8

Keep far away from a woman like that. Do not even go near the door of her house.

Keep your road far away from her,

The practical rule, and it is about distance. Do not plan to resist at close range. Arrange your route so that it does not pass her at all.

and do not come near the doorway of her house,

The second line makes it concrete. The doorway is the last point before going in. Proverbs 7 tells of a young man who walked down her street at dusk.

רחק · rachaq · be far, put far

The command used in Proverbs 4:24 for dishonest speech. Some things are handled only by distance.

דרך · derek · road, way of life

Your road, both the literal route you walk and the course of your life.

קרב · qarav · approach

To draw near. The opposite of rachaq in the first line.

פתח · petach · opening, doorway

The entrance. From patach, to open.

Proverbs 5:9

If you do, you will hand the best of yourself over to others. You will give years of your life to someone who has no kindness in them.

or you will hand your splendour to others

The costs begin. The first thing lost is your vigour and standing: your energy and your good name are spent on people who have no claim on them.

and your years to someone merciless,

Years of life are lost as well. The cruel one is not named: it may be the wronged husband, a creditor, or the woman herself. Whoever it is will show no pity.

הוד · hod · splendour, majesty

Usually the majesty of God or a king. Here it is a man's dignity and the bloom of his strength.

אחר · acher · another

People with no right to it. The first of four words in verses 9 and 10 for those who end up with what was his.

שנה · shanah · year

Proverbs 4:10 promised many years to the son who listens. This is how they are thrown away.

אכזרי · akzari · cruel, merciless

Fierce and without pity. Proverbs 6:34 and 35 describe the wronged husband this way: he will not spare and accepts no payment.

Proverbs 5:10

Strangers will fill themselves with what your strength earned. All that you worked so hard for will end up in someone else's house.

or outsiders will eat their fill of your strength,

The cost in money. What your strength produced feeds people who are nothing to you. The earning power of your best years goes to them.

and what you toiled for will end up in a foreigner's house.

The second line is more exact: the fruit of hard labour sits in another household. You did the work and another family has the benefit.

זר · zar · stranger, outsider

The masculine of zarah in verse 3. Go to the outsider woman and outsiders get what you have.

שבע · saba · be sated

To eat until full. They are satisfied at your expense.

כח · koach · strength, its produce

Power, and also what power produces: wealth earned by labour.

עצב · etsev · toil, painful labour

From a root meaning pain. The related word names the painful toil of Genesis 3:17. Here it is what that toil earned.

נכרי · nokri · foreigner, outsider

The masculine of nokriyah in verse 20. Someone outside your household.

Adultery in Israel could bring heavy compensation demanded by the husband, loss of standing, and ruin for a man's own household. The father is describing real financial and social consequences, not only inner guilt.

Proverbs 5:11

When your life is near its end, you will groan, and your body will be all worn out.

and you will groan when your end comes,

From money to the man himself. At the far end of this road he is left making the low moan of someone in pain. The 'end' answers her end in verse 4: both finish in bitterness.

when your flesh and your body are used up,

The body is spent. Whether through disease, punishment or simply wasted years, there is nothing left of the vigour of verse 9.

נהם · naham · growl, groan

The word for a lion's growl (Proverbs 19:12) and the roar of the sea. A deep sound of misery.

אחרית · acharit · afterward, outcome

The word of verse 4. Her end and your end are the same end.

בשר · basar · flesh

In Proverbs 4:22 the father's words were healing to all one's flesh. Refusing them has the opposite effect.

שאר · she'er · flesh, body

A second word for flesh; the pair together means the whole physical self.

כלה · kalah · be finished, spent

To come to an end, to be used up completely.

Proverbs 5:12

You will say, How I hated being taught! In my heart I looked down on being corrected!

and you say: 'How I hated discipline,

The father puts the future confession in his son's mouth so he can hear it now. The man does not blame the woman or bad luck. He traces it to his own attitude to correction.

and my heart treated correction with contempt!

The fault was in the heart, the place of decision. He had been warned and he despised the warning. This is the fool of Proverbs 1:7 and 1:30 speaking in the first person.

שנא · sane · hate

Active rejection. The charge Wisdom brought in Proverbs 1:29.

מוסר · musar · discipline, correction

Training that includes being told no. It comes back in the chapter's last verse.

לב · lev · inner self, mind and will

The heart he was told to guard above all (Proverbs 4:23).

נאץ · na'ats · spurn

To spurn with contempt. The same verb and object as Proverbs 1:30.

תוכחת · tokachat · correction

Correction that shows you where you are wrong. The partner of musar throughout Proverbs.

Proverbs 5:13

I would not listen to my teachers. I did not lean in to hear the ones who trained me.

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers,

He had teachers. Ignorance is not his excuse. The very thing verses 1 and 7 asked for is what he now admits he refused.

and I did not bend my ear to those who trained me.

The wording matches verse 1 exactly, in the negative. The son hearing this speech is being shown himself years later if he does not listen today.

שמע · shama · hear and heed

The command of verse 7, confessed as disobeyed.

קול · qol · voice, sound

To listen to someone's voice is the Hebrew idiom for obeying them.

מורה · moreh · teacher

From yarah, to point the way, the root of torah. Those who showed him the road.

נטה · natah · lean, bend

The verb of verse 1. He was asked to bend his ear and did not.

למד · lamad · teach, train

Literally 'those who trained me'. The root is used for training by practice and for the goad that directs an ox.

Proverbs 5:14

I came so close to losing everything, right in front of all the people.

I came within a little of every kind of ruin

He was at the edge of complete disaster. 'Almost' may mean he narrowly escaped the worst, or that it took very little time to get there.

in the middle of the gathered community.'

This is where it happened: in public, before the assembled people. The sin was private and the consequences were not. He is exposed and judged in front of everyone he knows.

כמעט · kim'at · nearly, in a little

Literally 'like a little': within a hair of it, or in a short time.

כל רע · kol ra · all evil, every harm

Literally 'in all evil'. Ra covers every kind of harm: disgrace, punishment and loss.

קהל · qahal · assembly

The people called together, especially for worship or for judgment.

עדה · edah · gathered community

The community meeting as a body, which had authority to try and sentence offenders.

The assembled community acted as a court. Adultery was a capital offence under the law (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22), and even short of that, the offender was shamed before the whole town. 'In the midst of the assembly' means his case came before everyone.

Proverbs 5:15

If you are married, be faithful to your husband or wife. Love within marriage is like fresh water from your own well.

Drink water from your own cistern,

The father turns from warning to the positive. The cistern is the son's wife. Thirst is real and is meant to be satisfied; the point is where. A man drinks from the supply that belongs to him.

running water from the middle of your own well.

The second line improves the picture from stored water to fresh, flowing water. Marriage is not presented as the dull option. It is the well with living water in it.

שתה · shatah · drink

Drinking is the picture for enjoying sexual love, as in Song of Songs 5:1.

מים · mayim · water

In a land with little rain, water was the most valued thing a household had.

בור · bor · cistern

A pit cut in rock to store rainwater. In Proverbs 1:12 the same word was the pit of the grave; here it gives life.

נוזלים · nozelim · flowing streams

From nazal, to flow or trickle. Running water as opposed to still.

באר · be'er · well

A shaft dug down to ground water. The bride is called a well of living water in Song of Songs 4:15.

A household's cistern or well was private property, often inside its own courtyard, and it was what kept the family alive through the dry season. To drink from your own was a picture of security (2 Kings 18:31). Taking water from another man's well was theft.

Proverbs 5:16

Should the water from your spring spill out into the street for anybody? No. The love of a husband and wife is not for sharing around.

Should your springs spill out into the street,

Now the springs are the man's own: his sexual powers, and by extension the children that come from them. The question expects the answer no. Nobody lets his water run off into the road.

channels of water into the open squares?

The public squares are where anyone can walk. Water poured out there is wasted and belongs to nobody. That is the picture of sex spread around outside the home.

מעין · ma'yan · spring

A natural source of water, from the word for eye. Here it stands for the man's power to father children.

פוץ · puts · scatter, disperse

To be scattered. The usual word for a people dispersed; here water spread about and lost.

חוץ · chuts · outside

Outside the house. Set against 'your own' in verse 15.

פלג · peleg · channel, stream

An irrigation channel, from a root meaning to divide. The 'streams of water' of Psalm 1:3.

רחוב · rechov · broad open place

The wide plaza of a town, where the woman of Proverbs 7:12 looks for her victims.

The Hebrew has no question mark or question word; it reads 'your springs will be scattered outside'. NASB takes it as a question expecting 'no'. Others take it as a consequence of unfaithfulness, and a few as a promise of many children for the faithful man. The question reading fits verse 17 best.

Proverbs 5:17

Love within marriage belongs to the two people married to each other. They should not share that closeness with other partners.

Let them belong to you alone,

The answer to the question of verse 16. What comes from you, your intimacy and your children, is to stay within your own household.

and not be shared with outsiders.

The negative side of the same point. Sexual love is exclusive by nature. The line also closes off the reverse danger of verse 10, where outsiders ended up with everything.

לבד · levad · alone, apart

Separate, by itself. The Hebrew is emphatic: for you, you alone.

זר · zar · stranger, outsider

The word of verse 10. There outsiders took his strength; here they are to have no share at all.

Proverbs 5:18

The father wishes the couple a blessed, joyful marriage. If you are married, keep finding joy in your husband or wife.

Let your fountain be blessed,

The fountain is the wife, the source the man drinks from. To call it blessed is to wish it fruitful and happy, and to say this joy has God's favour on it.

and find your joy in the wife of your youth.

Now the picture is dropped and she is named plainly. Joy is commanded. The wife of your youth is the woman you married when young; the delight is meant to last as long as the marriage does.

מקור · maqor · source, fountain

A source dug to flowing water. Proverbs later speaks of a 'fountain of life' with this same word (10:11, 13:14).

ברך · barak · bless

To be endowed with fruitfulness and well-being by God, as in Genesis 1:28.

שמח · samach · be glad

A command to be glad. Deuteronomy 24:5 uses this verb for a new husband making his wife happy.

אשה · ishshah · woman, wife

The ordinary word for a woman and for a wife. She is defined by belonging with him, where the zarah is defined by not belonging.

נעורים · ne'urim · youth, early life

The time of early adulthood. Malachi 2:14 uses the same phrase to rebuke men who betray the wife of their youth.

Proverbs 5:19

The father pictures the wife as a beautiful, graceful deer. He encourages the husband to keep delighting in her love.

A doe of love, a graceful mountain goat:

Two wild animals admired for beauty of form and lightness of movement. The husband is told to see his wife this way: as lovely, not as familiar.

let her breasts drench you at all times;

Plain language about physical pleasure in marriage. The verb is a water word, to drink until soaked, continuing the picture of verse 15. 'At all times' answers the lie that desire fades at home.

be always lost in her love.

The verb means to stagger or go astray, as a drunk does. The one place a man may lose himself completely is with his own wife. The next verse uses the same verb for the wrong woman.

אילה · ayyalah · doe, hind

A female deer. The Song of Songs uses deer and gazelles for the beauty of lovers.

חן · chen · grace, charm

The grace of the garland in Proverbs 1:9 and 4:9. Here it is the charm of a wife.

יעלה · ya'alah · female ibex

The wild goat of the crags, slender and sure-footed.

רוה · ravah · drink one's fill

To be saturated, as watered ground is. Proverbs 7:18 puts the same verb in the mouth of the adulteress as a counterfeit offer.

שגה · shagah · stray, reel

To wander or stagger, used of straying sheep and of men reeling from wine (Isaiah 28:7). Here it means being carried away.

אהבה · ahavah · love

The noun from ahav. It covers affection and desire together.

'Exhilarated' hides the fact that the Hebrew verb shagah normally means to go astray. It appears again in verse 20 and, with its usual bad sense, in verse 23. Older versions have 'be ravished'.

Proverbs 5:20

Why chase a relationship that breaks marriage promises? Sweet words cannot make betrayal right.

Why then, my son, would you lose yourself in an outsider woman,

A question that expects no good answer. Given what a man has at home (verses 15 to 19) and what the other woman costs (verses 9 to 14), being carried away by her makes no sense.

and embrace the bosom of a woman who is not yours?

The same act of love, with the wrong person. The line is parallel to verse 19 on purpose: there her breasts, here another woman's bosom.

שגה · shagah · stray, reel

The verb of verse 19. With a wife it is delight; with the zarah its normal sense returns: going astray.

זרה · zarah · strange woman, outsider

The woman of verse 3, named again as the speech closes.

חבק · chabaq · clasp, hug

The verb used for embracing wisdom in Proverbs 4:8.

חיק · cheq · bosom, lap

A different word from verse 19: the chest or lap, where someone is held close.

נכריה · nokriyah · foreign woman, outsider

The partner word to zarah, as in Proverbs 2:16. Foreign to the marriage, whatever her nationality.

Proverbs 5:21

God sees everything a person does, as if it were right in front of His eyes. He looks carefully at every path they take.

For a man's ways are right in front of the LORD's eyes,

The deepest reason. Adultery depends on secrecy, and there is none. Everything a man does is in plain view of God.

and He weighs every track he makes.

God does more than see. He assesses each path a person takes. What the woman never did for her own path in verse 6, the LORD does for everyone's.

דרך · derek · road, way of life

Every course of conduct, including the road of verse 8.

נכח · nokach · straight in front

Directly opposite. Proverbs 4:25 told the son to look straight ahead (the same word); here his ways lie straight ahead of God's eyes.

יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name

The only mention of God in the chapter. Marriage faithfulness is finally a matter between a man and the LORD.

פלס · palas · make level, weigh

The verb of verse 6 and of Proverbs 4:26. Here it means to weigh or examine.

מעגל · ma'gal · wagon track

The worn tracks of habit. The same word described her wandering tracks in verse 6.

Proverbs 5:22

The wrong things a bad person does will catch him like a trap. His own wrongdoing will tie him up tight like ropes.

His own wrongs will catch the wicked man,

No outside hunter is needed. The man's own guilty acts are the trap, and he is the animal caught in it.

and he will be held tight by the ropes of his sin.

Sin is pictured as cords. Each act adds a strand until the man cannot get free. He thought he was choosing freely and finds himself tied.

עון · avon · guilt, crooked deed

From a root meaning to bend or twist. Both the crooked act and the guilt that follows it.

לכד · lakad · capture, snare

To catch in a snare or take a city. The regular verb for trapping animals.

רשע · rasha · guilty, wicked

The adulterer is now named with the general term for the guilty. This sin puts him in that class.

תמך · tamak · grasp, hold fast

The verb of verse 5. Her steps gripped Sheol; now sin grips him.

חבל · chevel · cord, rope

A rope, used for binding and for snares.

חטאת · chatta't · sin, missing the mark

From chata, to miss the mark, the commonest Old Testament word for sin.

Proverbs 5:23

He will die because he would not be corrected. His own great foolishness will make him stagger right off the path.

He will die for want of discipline,

The cause of death is stated exactly: not the woman, but the absence of discipline. He would not be corrected (verse 12), so nothing stopped him.

and in his great folly he will reel off course.

The verb of verses 19 and 20 comes back a third time. The man who would not be carried away by his wife is carried away by his own stupidity, to his death.

מות · mut · die

The verb behind 'death' in verse 5. The chapter's warning of where her feet go ends with him arriving there.

אין · ayin · there is none

The Hebrew particle of non-existence: literally 'in there being no discipline'.

מוסר · musar · discipline, correction

The thing he hated in verse 12. Its absence is the last word on his life.

אולת · ivvelet · folly

The noun that goes with evil, the stubborn fool of Proverbs 1:7 who despises discipline.

שגה · shagah · stray, reel

Third use. Lost in love (verse 19), lost in the wrong woman (verse 20), and finally just lost.

NASB translates one Hebrew verb, shagah, as 'be exhilarated' in verses 19 and 20 and 'go astray' here. The repetition is deliberate in the Hebrew: you will be carried away by something, either your wife's love or your own folly.