Proverbs 5
What Happens in This Chapter
A father tells his son to listen to wisdom and stay away from another man's wife. He warns that her sweet words end in loss, ruin, and death, and that a man may look back with regret. Then he tells the son to be glad with his own wife instead. The chapter ends by saying the LORD sees every path a person takes.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
1My son, listen to my wisdom. Turn your ear to what I have learned.
2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
2Then you will think before you act. 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 words of a woman who is not your wife taste sweet as honey. Her talk is smoother than oil.
The KJV says "a strange woman." That does not mean odd or unusual. It means a woman a man has no right to, such as someone else's wife.
4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
4But in the end she is bitter. She cuts like a sword sharp on both sides.
Wormwood is a plant with a very bitter taste.
5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
5Her feet walk down toward death. Her steps lead to the place of the dead.
The KJV says "hell." The word here is Sheol, the Hebrew name for the place of the dead.
6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
6She never thinks about the path of life. Her own ways wander, and she does not know it.
7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
7So listen to me now, my sons. 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 her door.
9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
9If you do, you will hand your strength to others. You will give your years to someone cruel.
10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
10Strangers will eat up what you own. Your hard work will fill 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. Your body will be worn out.
12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
12You will say, "I hated being taught. My heart hated being corrected."
13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
13"I did not listen to my teachers. I would not turn my ear to them."
14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
14"Now I am close to total ruin, right in front of everyone."
15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
15Drink water from your own tank. Drink the fresh water from your own well.
16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
16Why should your springs spill out into the street? Why should your water run in the public square?
The KJV reads like a command: "Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad." In the Hebrew it is a question, and the answer is no. The water stands for a man's own married love.
17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
17Keep that water for yourself alone. Do not share it with strangers.
18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
18May your well 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, graceful and lovely. May her body always satisfy you. May her love always hold your heart.
20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
20So why let another man's wife hold your heart, my son? Why hold close a woman who is not yours?
21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
21The LORD sees every path a man walks. He looks closely at everywhere that man goes.
22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
22A wicked man is trapped by the wrong he does. His sins tie him up like ropes.
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 away.
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