Read & explore together
Avoiding Immorality
Proverbs 5 warns a son to listen carefully to wisdom because sexual unfaithfulness looks attractive at first but ends in loss, grief and death. The passage also positively calls for faithfulness and joy within marriage.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
This passage is written as wisdom and direct address, moving from an opening appeal to listen, to a warning about the adulteress, to the cost of ignoring instruction, and then to a call to rejoice in one’s own marriage under Yahweh’s watchful eyes.
Proverbs 5:1–23Main takeaway
Proverbs 5 teaches that sexual immorality is deceptive and destructive, while faithful marital love is presented as wise and good before Yahweh.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Listen so you keep discretionThe passage begins with a strong appeal to pay attention to wisdom and understanding. The goal is not mere information but discretion and preserved knowledge.
Explanation
The passage begins with a strong appeal to pay attention to wisdom and understanding. The goal is not mere information but discretion and preserved knowledge. In this chapter, wisdom is presented as protection. Listening matters because what follows will test judgement, speech and choices.
02Sin can sound sweet but ends in bitternessThe adulteress is described with attractive speech: honey and oil suggest something pleasant and smooth.
Explanation
The adulteress is described with attractive speech: honey and oil suggest something pleasant and smooth. Yet the end is bitter and dangerous, like wormwood and a sharp sword. Her path leads to death and Sheol, and her ways are crooked rather than the way of life.
03Keep far away and consider the costThe warning becomes practical: do not go near her door. The father describes heavy losses that can follow, including honour, years, wealth, bodily suffering and public ruin.
Explanation
The warning becomes practical: do not go near her door. The father describes heavy losses that can follow, including honour, years, wealth, bodily suffering and public ruin. Regret comes too late when a person realises he hated instruction and would not listen to correction.
04Choose faithful love because Yahweh sees all pathsThe water images turn to a positive command: keep marital love within its proper place, rejoice in the wife of your youth, and be captivated by her love rather than an adulteress.
Explanation
The water images turn to a positive command: keep marital love within its proper place, rejoice in the wife of your youth, and be captivated by her love rather than an adulteress. This is serious because Yahweh sees every path, and sin eventually traps the one who practises it.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What contrast does Proverbs 5 make between first appearances and final outcomes?
Notice how the passage moves from honey and smooth oil to bitterness, sharpness, death and Sheol.
02Which losses are named as consequences of ignoring this warning?
List the specific things mentioned, including honour, years, wealth, bodily suffering and ruin among the assembly.
03How does the passage present a wise alternative to adultery?
Look at the commands about one’s own cistern and well, rejoicing in the wife of youth, and Yahweh examining all paths.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Proverbs 5:1–23
1My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
2that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
7Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
8Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
9lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
11You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
13I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
14I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
15Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
16Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
17Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
18Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
20For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
21For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
23He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.