Proverbs 5 KJV
Warning Against Adultery
Proverbs Chapter 5: Warning Against Adultery
The chapter subverts Canaanite fertility symbolism by depicting the adulteress's lips as honeycomb and her mouth as smoother than oil, repurposing motifs of sacred prostitution to warn against idolatry disguised as sensuality.
1y son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangersโ with thee.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
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Did You Know?
The chapter subverts Canaanite fertility symbolism by depicting the adulteress's lips as honeycomb and her mouth as smoother than oil, repurposing motifs of sacred prostitution to warn against idolatry disguised as sensuality.
Verses 15-18 employ an extended cistern-and-well metaphor drawn from ancient Israelite property law, where private water sources represented inalienable inheritance, framing marital fidelity as both economic and covenantal stewardship.
The rare phrase 'rejoice with the wife of thy youth' echoes Deuteronomic covenant renewal language, portraying monogamous marriage as a living reenactment of Israel's exclusive bond with Yahweh rather than mere domestic advice.
Verse 14's reference to near-ruin 'in the midst of the congregation' alludes to ancient public shaming rituals at city gates, where adultery triggered communal economic and social sanctions beyond private guilt.
The father-son instructional frame mirrors the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope yet redirects its foreign-woman warnings toward internal moral formation, highlighting Proverbs' adaptation of international wisdom for Yahwistic personal accountability.
Commentary & Study Notes
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Proverbs 5 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: A Warning Against The Seductive Arts Of Wicked Women, Enforced By Considering The Advantages Of Chastity, And The Miserable End Of The Wicked.
A Warning Against The Seductive Arts Of Wicked Women, Enforced By Considering The Advantages Of Chastity, And The Miserable End Of The Wicked v1-23
1. This connection of wisdom and understanding is frequent (Pr 2:2; 3:7); the first denotes the use of wise means for wise ends; the other, the exercise of a proper discrimination in their discovery. 2. regard--or, "observe." keep--preserve constantly. 3. (Compare Pr 2:16). Her enticing promises are deceitful. 4. her end--literally, "her future," in sense of reward, what follows (compare Ps 37:37; 73:17). Its nature is evinced by the use of figures, opposite those of Pr 5:3. The physical and moral suffering of the deluded profligate are notoriously terrible. 5. feet . . . , steps--that is, course of life ends in death. 6. her ways . . . know--Some prefer, "that she may not ponder the path of life," &c.; but perhaps a better sense is, "her ways are varied, so as to prevent your knowledge of her true character, and so of true happiness." 8, 9. Avoid the slightest temptation. 9. thine honour--in whatever consisting, strength (Pr 3:13) or wealth. thy years--by cutting them off in dissipation. unto the cruel--for such the sensual are apt to become. 10. wealth--literally, "strength," or the result of it. labours--the fruit of thy painful exertions (Ps 127:2). There may be a reference to slavery, a commuted punishment for death due the adulterer (De 22:22). 11. at the last--the end, or reward (compare Pr 5:4). mourn--roar in pain. flesh and . . . body--the whole person under incurable disease. 12-14. The ruined sinner vainly laments his neglect of warning and his sad fate in being brought to public disgrace. 14. evil--for affliction, as in Ge 19:20; 49:15. 15-20. By figures, in which well, cistern, and fountain [Pr 5:15, 18] represent the wife, and rivers of waters [Pr 5:16] the children, men are exhorted to constancy and satisfaction in lawful conjugal enjoyments. In Pr 5:16, fountains (in the plural) rather denote the produce or waters of a spring, literally, "what is from a spring," and corresponds with "rivers of waters." 17. only thine own--harlots' children have no known father. 18. wife . . . youth--married in youth. 19. loving . . . roe--other figures for a wife from the well-known beauty of these animals. breasts--(Compare So 1:13; Eze 23:3, 8). ravished--literally, "intoxicated," that is, fully satisfied. 21. The reason, God's eye is on you, 22, 23. and He will cause sin to bring its punishment. 23. without instruction--literally, "in want of instruction," having refused it (compare Job 13:18; Heb 11:24). go astray--literally, "be drunken." The word "ravished" (Pr 5:19) here denotes fulness of punishment.