Proverbs
Chapter 5
A father tells his son to listen closely to wisdom and stay away from a woman who belongs to another man. He warns that her sweet words end in bitterness, and that a man who follows her loses his strength, his wealth, and his years, and is left full of regret. The chapter then turns to the other side of the picture: the son should find his joy in his own wife. It closes by saying the LORD sees every path a person walks, and a man's own sins can trap him.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
1My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Lean in and listen to what I understand.
2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
2Then you will know how to think before you act, and your words will hold on to what you know.
3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
3The lips of a woman who is not your own drip sweet like honey. Her talk is smoother than oil.
"A strange woman" in the King James Version does not mean odd or unusual. It means a woman who is off limits, usually another man's wife.
4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
4But in the end she is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a sword with two edges.
Wormwood is a plant with an extremely bitter taste. Saying something is bitter as wormwood is like saying it is bitter as it gets.
5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
5Her feet walk down toward death. Her steps lead straight to the grave.
The King James Version says "hell" here, but the Hebrew word is Sheol, which simply means the place of the dead. It is not a picture of punishment.
6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
6She never stops to think about the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know where they go.
7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
7So listen to me now, my sons, and do not turn away from what I say.
8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
8Keep your path far away from her. Do not even go near the door of her house.
9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
9If you do, you will hand your strength and good name to others, and your years to someone cruel.
10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
10Strangers will grow fat on what you own. All your hard work will end up in another man's house.
11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
11At the end of your life you will groan, when your body and your strength are used up.
12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
12You will say, "How I hated being taught! My heart refused every warning.
13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
13I did not listen to my teachers. I would not lean in to hear the ones who trained me.
14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
14Now I stand at the edge of total ruin, and everyone in the whole town can see it."
15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
15Drink water from your own cistern, the tank that holds your water, and from your own well.
16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
16Why should your springs pour out into the street, your streams of water into the public square?
The King James wording, "Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad," sounds like an order to spread your water everywhere. In the Hebrew it is a question that expects the answer no, which fits the next verse.
17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
17Let them belong to you alone. Never share them with strangers.
18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
18May your spring be blessed. Be glad with the wife you married when you were young.
19Let 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.
19She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her body satisfy you always. Let her love hold you completely.
20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
20So why, my son, would you be caught up in a woman who is not yours, and hold another man's wife close?
21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
21The LORD sees everything a man does. He looks closely at every path a person walks.
22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
22A wicked man is caught by his own sins. They wrap around him like ropes and hold him tight.
23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
23He dies because he would not be taught. His own great foolishness leads him off the road.
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