Literary Setting and Purpose

Proverbs 5:1–23 stands within the opening father-to-son exhortations of Proverbs 1–9, where wisdom is not merely information but a moral path. The speaker addresses “my son” (Proverbs 5:1), a covenant-shaped form of instruction meant to form a man who fears Jehovah, governs his appetites, and walks with skill in daily life. Here the immediate threat is sexual sin, especially adultery and the seduction of the “strange woman” and “foreign woman” (Proverbs 5:3, Proverbs 5:20). The passage is not written as abstract moralism; it is pastoral realism. It exposes the deceptive sweetness of illicit desire, traces its end to death, and sets covenant marriage as the proper and joyful sphere for sexual delight.

The chapter does not speak from naivety. It recognizes how temptation works: it begins with words and impressions, then draws the body, then captures the life. Accordingly, the father begins not with rules but with attentiveness, discretion, and guarded speech (Proverbs 5:1–2). Wisdom must be received, held, and practiced, because the seducer’s strategy is to bypass wisdom by flattering the senses and dulling restraint.

Original Translation From the Hebrew Text

Proverbs 5:1 My son, attend to my wisdom; to my understanding incline your ear,
Proverbs 5:2 to keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.
Proverbs 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, and smoother than oil is her palate;
Proverbs 5:4 but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Proverbs 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol.
Proverbs 5:6 The path of life—lest you level it—her tracks wander; you do not know.

Proverbs 5:7 And now, sons, listen to me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
Proverbs 5:8 Keep your way far from her, and do not approach the door of her house,
Proverbs 5:9 lest you give to others your splendor, and your years to the cruel one;
Proverbs 5:10 lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors be in the house of a foreigner;
Proverbs 5:11 and you groan at your end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
Proverbs 5:12 and you say, “How I have hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof,
Proverbs 5:13 and I did not listen to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I did not incline my ear;
Proverbs 5:14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

Proverbs 5:15 Drink waters from your own cistern, and flowing waters from within your own well.
Proverbs 5:16 Shall your springs be dispersed outside, streams of water in the streets?
Proverbs 5:17 Let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
Proverbs 5:18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
Proverbs 5:19 a loving hind and a graceful doe—let her breasts satisfy you at all times; in her love be intoxicated continually.
Proverbs 5:20 And why, my son, will you be intoxicated with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?
Proverbs 5:21 For before the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of a man, and all his tracks He weighs.
Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities will capture him, the wicked, and with the cords of his sin he will be held fast.
Proverbs 5:23 He will die for lack of discipline, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.

Proverbs 5:1–2: Wisdom as Guarded Attention and Guarded Speech

The father begins with two imperatives: “attend” and “incline your ear” (Proverbs 5:1). The language is bodily: the ear is bent toward wisdom, because temptation often enters through what one is willing to hear. In Hebrew thought, listening is not passive; it is a moral posture. The aim clause in Proverbs 5:2 shows purpose: “to keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.” Discretion is not mere caution; it is the capacity to plan and choose rightly. The verb “guard” frames knowledge as something vulnerable. A man may “know” what is right yet speak foolishly, flirt with sin, or entertain suggestive talk until his lips betray him. The father therefore ties inward discernment to outward speech. The mouth is a gate. If the lips are undisciplined, the heart will soon follow.

This fits the larger biblical pattern that speech both reveals and shapes character. What a man jokes about, what he tolerates in conversation, and what he repeats as “harmless” becomes the soundtrack of his desires. The father is training the son to treat wisdom as a treasure that must be protected, not a theory that can be admired while indulging sin.

Proverbs 5:3–6: The Deceptive Sweetness of Seduction and Its End in Death

The seductress is introduced through her mouth: “the lips … drip honey” (Proverbs 5:3). The imagery is sensory and intimate. Honey symbolizes sweetness, pleasure, and immediate gratification. Her “palate” is “smoother than oil,” a picture of persuasive charm and flattering speech that slides past resistance. The danger is not only sexual; it is verbal. Seduction frequently begins with plausibility: justifying the forbidden, minimizing consequences, or appealing to wounded pride.

“But her end” (Proverbs 5:4) is the father’s pivot. The word “end” is decisive: the moral evaluation is not determined by the first taste but by the final outcome. What begins as honey ends as “wormwood,” a bitter plant associated with misery, and it is “sharp as a two-edged sword,” the image of irreversible injury. Sexual sin is not portrayed as neutral pleasure with later regret; it is portrayed as a blade that cuts into life.

Proverbs 5:5–6 drives the point to its finality. “Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol.” Death here is not theatrical language for “a bad time.” It is the biblical reality that sin is destructive and can end life itself. “Sheol” in the Hebrew Scriptures is the realm of the dead, the grave. The father is saying that the trajectory of adultery is toward the grave. This aligns with the broader scriptural principle that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), not because every sin kills immediately, but because sin, when embraced, yields ruin and can culminate in literal death.

Proverbs 5:6 is intentionally disorienting: “The path of life—lest you level it—her tracks wander; you do not know.” The father’s point is that her way is unstable and cannot be measured by a steady standard. The verb behind “level” carries the sense of weighing or making straight. The seducer does not invite a man to sober evaluation; she invites him into confusion, secrecy, and rationalization. Once a man stops “leveling” his path—once he stops honest self-examination in the fear of Jehovah—he becomes easy prey. The danger is not only that her path is crooked; it is that the man loses clarity about his own.

Proverbs 5:7–14: Distance, Not Dialogue, and the Public Ruin of Private Sin

Proverbs 5:7 widens the address: “sons.” The instruction is general because the temptation is common. The father’s counsel is not to negotiate with temptation but to withdraw: “Keep your way far from her, and do not approach the door of her house” (Proverbs 5:8). This is not cowardice; it is wisdom. The text does not praise the man who lingers near the edge to prove strength. It praises the man who refuses proximity. This principle harmonizes with the wider scriptural call to flee sexual immorality rather than test it (1 Corinthians 6:18). The door is mentioned because sin often begins with small permissions: a private message, a “harmless” visit, a repeated glance. The father cuts this off at the earliest point.

Proverbs 5:9–10 then describes the cost with sobering breadth. “Lest you give to others your splendor, and your years to the cruel one.” “Splendor” can include honor, reputation, dignity, and the strength of one’s prime. Sexual sin does not remain private; it migrates outward. The “cruel one” may be the wronged husband who demands payment, the exploiter who profits, or the harsh outcomes that follow. The following verse continues: “lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors be in the house of a foreigner.” The language suggests loss of wealth and the transfer of a man’s labor to others. Adultery can drain resources through extortion, legal penalties, relational collapse, and long-term instability. The father is not merely threatening; he is describing what happens when desire rules a man instead of wisdom.

Proverbs 5:11 adds physical consequence: “you groan at your end, when your flesh and your body are consumed.” The proverb does not specify the mechanism. It could include disease, violence, stress-driven decline, or the general wasting that comes from destructive living. The key is that sin eventually makes itself felt in the body. The Bible does not treat the body as morally irrelevant. A man’s choices imprint themselves on his physical life.

Proverbs 5:12–14 then portrays the voice of regret. The man looks back and speaks to himself: “How I have hated discipline.” The tragedy is not ignorance. He had “instructors” and “teachers” (Proverbs 5:13). Wisdom was available. He refused it because discipline offended him. The heart “despised reproof.” This reveals the deepest root: sexual ruin often begins with an unteachable spirit. When a man cannot receive correction, he is already moving toward folly, even before temptation appears.

The final line is chilling: “I was almost in all evil in the midst of the assembly and congregation” (Proverbs 5:14). Private sin becomes public disgrace. The terms “assembly” and “congregation” point to the community where a man should have been honorable. The proverb does not mean he committed every sin imaginable; it means he was brought near total ruin in full view of the covenant community. Sexual sin loves secrecy, but it frequently ends with exposure. The father wants the son to imagine the scene before he enters the path: the groaning, the confession, the humiliation, the awareness that this did not happen in a vacuum but in the face of repeated instruction.

Proverbs 5:15–20: Covenant Joy in Marriage and the Right Use of Desire

Having warned against adultery, the father does not present righteousness as mere restraint. He presents a positive, God-honoring alternative: marital delight. “Drink waters from your own cistern, and flowing waters from within your own well” (Proverbs 5:15). The metaphor speaks of exclusive possession and legitimate enjoyment. Water is life-sustaining and refreshing. In a dry land, a cistern and well are valuable, protected sources. The father is teaching that a man’s sexual desire is not to be denied as evil, but directed to its proper covenant home.

Proverbs 5:16 asks whether springs should be scattered into the streets. The implied answer is no. What is precious is not poured out in public. This is a picture of how sexual intimacy is designed for guarded privacy and covenant exclusivity. Proverbs 5:17 states it plainly: “Let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.” The moral logic is not merely “do not commit adultery,” but “do not share what belongs to covenant union with those outside it.” This honors the wife, protects the home, and preserves the man’s integrity.

Proverbs 5:18 blesses the covenant: “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.” The “fountain” likely refers to the man’s sexual capacity and the marital union that gives it lawful expression. The father calls for rejoicing, not tolerating. The wife is not presented as a mere duty but as a joy. “Wife of your youth” stresses enduring fidelity. It is possible to drift into cold coexistence and then seek excitement elsewhere. The father commands joy as part of faithfulness.

Proverbs 5:19 speaks with poetic tenderness: “a loving hind and a graceful doe.” The imagery is not crude; it is affectionate, celebrating feminine beauty and responsive love within marriage. The line “let her breasts satisfy you at all times” uses direct bodily language to sanctify sexual pleasure when it is covenantal. “In her love be intoxicated continually” employs the verb of being swept along, even “staggering” with delight. The same vocabulary used to warn about being led astray becomes, in marriage, a picture of lawful exhilaration. Scripture is not embarrassed by marital intimacy; it praises it as God’s gift.

Proverbs 5:20 returns to the main question: “why … will you be intoxicated with a strange woman?” The father is not only prohibiting an act; he is challenging the logic of betrayal. Why trade the blessed fountain for a stolen cup that ends in bitterness? Why embrace the bosom of a woman who does not share covenant bonds, who offers pleasure without faithfulness, and whose path leads to death? The question exposes adultery as irrational folly. It is not an upgrade; it is a collapse.

This also harmonizes with the New Testament’s insistence that marriage is honorable and the marital bed is undefiled, while sexual immorality and adultery bring God’s judgment (Hebrews 13:4). The biblical pattern is consistent: sexual desire is not to be extinguished, but sanctified through covenant commitment.

Proverbs 5:21–23: Jehovah’s All-Seeing Judgment and Sin’s Self-Enslaving Power

The final section lifts the son’s eyes to Jehovah. “For before the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of a man, and all his tracks He weighs” (Proverbs 5:21). The verb “weighs” evokes a scale and a measured evaluation. The father is reminding the son that adultery is not merely a private matter between consenting adults; it is lived before the face of God. Jehovah sees not only the act but the “tracks,” the repeated patterns that form a life. This is meant both as warning and as stabilizing truth. A man cannot hide from God, but he also never needs to. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom because it restores reality. Temptation thrives on the fantasy of secrecy. Proverbs 5:21 destroys that fantasy.

Proverbs 5:22 describes sin as self-capturing: “His own iniquities will capture him … with the cords of his sin he will be held fast.” The imagery is of hunting and binding. Adultery promises freedom but produces slavery. A man thinks he is choosing pleasure; in fact, he is weaving cords. The proverb stresses ownership: “his own.” No one can truthfully say, “This happened to me.” The wicked is caught by what he chose. This is a moral principle repeated throughout Scripture: what a man sows, he reaps (Galatians 6:7–8). Sin is not only judged from outside; it punishes from within.

Proverbs 5:23 concludes: “He will die for lack of discipline, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.” The final outcome is death, the end of life. The text does not speak of an immortal soul suffering forever. It speaks of the real end that sin brings: life squandered, health consumed, honor lost, and finally death. The “lack of discipline” is the practical root. Discipline is not legalism; it is trained love for what is good and trained resistance to what destroys. The man dies not because wisdom was impossible, but because he refused restraint. He “goes astray” in “greatness of folly,” emphasizing that folly is not small. It grows. What begins as a glance can become a path; what becomes a path can become a fate.

Yet the passage also implies hope by the very fact that it instructs. The father’s voice is a mercy. Wisdom calls a man before he falls, not after. The way of life is real. It is walked through attentiveness to instruction, deliberate distance from temptation, covenant joy in marriage, and sober awareness that Jehovah sees and weighs.

Canonical Harmony and Faithful Application

Proverbs 5:1–23 stands in full harmony with the moral law that forbids adultery (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18) and with the deeper heart-level demand expressed by Jesus Christ, Who condemns lust as the inward seed of adultery (Matthew 5:27–28). The proverb addresses the son as a whole man: mind, mouth, feet, desire, and conscience. The solution it provides is not a technique but a way: humility toward instruction, avoidance of near occasions of sin, and cultivated joy in the marriage covenant.

Faithful application begins with receiving Proverbs 5:1–2 as the foundation. A man who despises correction is already vulnerable. Therefore, a man must welcome reproof, especially from Scripture, and he must train his speech. The seducer’s honey often enters through conversation, joking, secret flattery, and subtle emotional intimacy outside marriage. Guarding the lips is not prudishness; it is the wise protection of the heart.

Next, Proverbs 5:8 requires decisive separation. The text does not counsel “manage temptation” by constant exposure. It commands distance. This includes refusing private situations, refusing secret communications, and refusing patterns that mimic intimacy. The father does not assume that sexual sin only happens in scandalous places. The “door” of the house is enough. The boundary must be earlier than the fall.

Then Proverbs 5:15–19 calls husbands not merely to avoid adultery but to pursue marital rejoicing. A cold, neglected marriage creates a climate where temptation feels plausible. The proverb does not excuse sin, but it commands positive faithfulness: rejoicing in the wife, nourishing delight, and treating marital intimacy as a blessed fountain. This honors God because He is the One Who designed marriage as covenant companionship.

Finally, Proverbs 5:21–23 anchors the entire passage in theology: Jehovah sees and weighs. Fear of God is not paranoia; it is sanity. It reminds a man that he lives before the Holy One, and that sin binds the sinner with cords of his own making. In that light, self-control is not the loss of joy but the preservation of life. The way of wisdom is the way of life.

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