BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Proverbs 5 — Warning Against the Adulteress
A father instructs his son to listen to wisdom, flee the seductive adulteress whose end is death, and find exclusive delight in the wife of his youth, for the LORD watches all human paths.
Scripture
1My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding:
2That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil:
4But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol;
6So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not.
7Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth.
8Remove thy way far from her, And come not nigh the door of her house;
9Lest thou give thine honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel;
10Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors be in the house of an alien,
11And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;
13Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.
16Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?
17Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.
18Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
19As a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love.
20For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he maketh level all his paths.
22His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
23He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
What this passage means
Proverbs 5 is built as a father-to-son lecture (v. 1) whose purpose is stated explicitly in v. 2: so that the son may preserve discretion (Heb. mezimmot, plans or moral devices) and guard knowledge with his lips. The instruction moves in three steps: a vivid description of the danger (vv. 3–6), a series of practical prohibitions and consequences (vv. 7–14), and a positive counter-vision of marital fidelity (vv. 15–20), capped by a theological reason (vv. 21–23).
The danger portrait in vv. 3–6 contrasts surface sweetness with hidden destruction: the strange woman's lips drop honey and her mouth is smoother than oil (v. 3), but her end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword (v. 4). Her feet go down to death and her steps take hold on Sheol (v. 5), and she does not even know that her own ways are unstable (v. 6). The point is not only that the seducer harms the victim but that she herself is bound for the grave, so the warning protects the son from both moral and physical ruin.
The concluding section grounds the ethic in theology. v. 21 declares that 'the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah' and that He makes all the man's paths level — every moral choice is observed and weighed. vv. 22–23 then describe the self-binding nature of sin: the wicked are taken by their own iniquities and held by the cords of their sin, and they die for lack of instruction. Discipline is therefore not arbitrary; refusing it is itself the path to destruction.
Context
The chapter is a self-contained unit within the opening wisdom collection of Proverbs (chs. 1–9), where a father figure repeatedly addresses 'my son' to warn against sexual immorality and the 'strange woman' (cf. Proverbs 2:16; 7:25 in the provided cross references). Chapter 4 has just closed with a call to guard the heart, and chapter 5 transitions from that general call to a specific scenario of temptation. The final verses (21–23) link personal conduct to divine omniscience, a theme echoed by the cross-referenced passages (Hebrews 4:13; Proverbs 15:3; Job 34:21).
The provided chapter note states only that this is backfilled content from Proverbs outside the P0/P1 range, so the page does not import external historical, literary, or sociological claims beyond what the text and the cross-reference list themselves present.
Key words in the original
- H2451 חׇכְמָה (chokhmah, 'wisdom') opens the chapter's call to listen. The father asks the son to attend to his wisdom and incline his ear to his understanding (v. 1), framing the whole lecture as the impartation of skill for living rather than mere information.
- H2114 זָרָה (zara, 'strange woman / adulteress') in v. 3 names the danger. The provided gloss marks it as one who turns aside or commits adultery; the chapter treats the term as a moral category, not merely a description of nationality.
- H5317 נֹפֶת (nopheth, 'honey' / 'drippings of the comb') in v. 3 depicts the seductive speech of the adulteress. The verse contrasts this sweetness with the bitter 'end' (אַחֲרִית) named in v. 4, sharpening the chapter's central reversal: honey now, wormwood later.
Related verses
- Proverbs 2:16 Both Proverbs 2:16 and 5:3 introduce the 'strange woman' whose words flatter, framing the warning in chapter 5 as one installment of a sustained fatherly warning against her seductive speech.
- Proverbs 7:25 Proverbs 7:25's command 'let not thy heart decline to her ways; go not astray in her paths' is the next-chapter echo of 5:8 ('remove thy way far from her… come not nigh the door of her house'), reinforcing the practical instruction to keep distance from the adulteress.
- Hebrews 4:13 Hebrews 4:13's claim that 'all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do' restates the theological claim of Proverbs 5:21 that the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah and that He makes all his paths level.
Common questions
Why does Proverbs 5 speak of the 'strange woman' as if she herself is bound for death?
Verses 5–6 portray the adulteress as one whose feet go down to death and whose steps take hold on Sheol, and who does not know that her ways are unstable. The chapter thus warns the son not only of the harm she does to him but of the moral ruin she herself inhabits, making the call to flee her more than self-protection.
What is the relationship between the warning in vv. 7–14 and the positive vision of marriage in vv. 15–20?
The prohibitions (stay far from her house, vv. 8–10) and the imagined lament of the foolish son (vv. 11–14) prepare the way for the positive counter-image of vv. 15–20, where 'drinking water from your own cistern' and rejoicing in the wife of your youth replace the language of foreign streams. The warning clears the ground; the marriage vision fills it.
How do vv. 21–23 connect the chapter's wisdom to a doctrine of divine judgment?
Verse 21 grounds ethics in divine omniscience: the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, who makes all his paths level. Verses 22–23 then describe the self-executing nature of judgment: the wicked are caught by their own iniquities, held by the cords of their sin, and die for lack of instruction. Discipline, in other words, is not imposed from outside; refusing it is itself the path of ruin.