Proverbs 5

¹⁷Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge—

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.

¹My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,

¹³He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

²³The heart of the wise man instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

⁶True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

⁷For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

⁷The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but not so the hearts of fools.

¹¹Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

¹³With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth.

¹⁶It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

²⁴to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²¹With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

²¹His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

⁵that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.

²The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

³And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

⁴My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

²¹His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹⁸But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

¹⁵“How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”

¹⁶Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

¹⁸For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

¹⁹None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

²⁶Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

¹¹You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord examines all his paths.

²⁰This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

⁵⁹I considered my ways and turned my steps to Your testimonies.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

¹Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

¹⁷Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise—apply your mind to my knowledge—

¹⁸for it is pleasing when you keep them within you and they are constantly on your lips.

²⁴Now, my sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth.

²¹Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?

²¹My son, do not lose sight of this: Preserve sound judgment and discernment.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

¹¹Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

¹⁵Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.

²⁷Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

²⁶Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

¹⁹And having lulled him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his head. In this way she began to subdue him, and his strength left him.

²⁰Then she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

²³“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

²⁴About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

⁹Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.

³⁵He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.

³Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.

³⁰But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

²¹What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

¹⁵But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

²⁷When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel, and she will become accursed among her people.

⁴When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,

⁵hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.

²³until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.

¹Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.

⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

⁵A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction is prudent.

²⁵because you neglected all my counsel, and wanted none of my correction,

²²“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?

¹⁸Poverty and shame come to him who ignores discipline, but whoever heeds correction is honored.

⁸Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

⁷Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

¹⁸I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

¹²But we ask you, brothers, to acknowledge those who work diligently among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.

¹³In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work. Live in peace with one another.

²⁰He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

¹⁰Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

¹¹Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

¹¹to promiscuity, wine, and new wine, which take away understanding.

¹²My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

¹While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

²who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.

²But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

¹⁸May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

¹⁹A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

³Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.

³Children are indeed a heritage from the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.

²⁸So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.

⁶⁰And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”

²¹They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.

⁹He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years.

⁹Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun.

¹⁴Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

¹⁵Has not the Lord made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

¹⁵You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water flowing down from Lebanon.

¹²My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.

³Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

¹⁴Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

⁹My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

¹⁷Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.

⁵that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.

²⁴to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸Like a robber she lies in wait and multiplies the faithless among men.

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the Lord will fall into it.

¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

³The eyes of the Lord are in every place, observing the evil and the good.

²¹For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.

¹⁹the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

¹⁷For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.

⁴The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

³¹So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

³²For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless directs their path, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness.

¹¹to promiscuity, wine, and new wine, which take away understanding.

¹²My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

⁵For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

¹⁸But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

¹²But if they do not obey, then they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

²¹Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

¹⁶But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

³²The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.