Proverbs 5-7

Living Bible

5 Listen to me, my son! I know what I am saying; listen! ² Watch yourself, lest you be indiscreet and betray some vital information. ³ For the lips of a prostitute^[a] are as sweet as honey, and smooth flattery is her stock-in-trade. ⁴ But afterwards only a bitter conscience is left to you,^[b] sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ She leads you down to death and hell. ⁶ For she does not know the path to life. She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t even realize where it leads.

⁷ Young men, listen to me, and never forget what I’m about to say: ⁸ Run from her! Don’t go near her house, ⁹ lest you fall to her temptation and lose your honor, and give the remainder of your life to the cruel and merciless;^{[c] 10} lest strangers obtain your wealth, and you become a slave of foreigners. ¹¹ Lest afterwards you groan in anguish and in shame when syphilis^[d] consumes your body, ¹² and you say, “Oh, if only I had listened! If only I had not demanded my own way! ¹³ Oh, why wouldn’t I take advice? Why was I so stupid? ¹⁴ For now I must face public disgrace.”

¹⁵ Drink from your own well, my son—be faithful and true to your wife. ¹⁶ Why should you beget children with women of the street? ¹⁷ Why share your children with those outside your home? ¹⁸ Be happy, yes, rejoice in the wife of your youth. ¹⁹ Let her breasts and tender embrace^[e] satisfy you. Let her love alone fill you with delight. ²⁰ Why delight yourself with prostitutes, embracing what isn’t yours? ²¹ For God is closely watching you, and he weighs carefully everything you do.

²² The wicked man is doomed by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. ²³ He shall die because he will not listen to the truth; he has let himself be led away into incredible folly.

6 Son, if you endorse a note for someone you hardly know, guaranteeing his debt, you are in serious trouble. ² You may have trapped yourself by your agreement. ³ Quick! Get out of it if you possibly can! Swallow your pride; don’t let embarrassment stand in the way. Go and beg to have your name erased. ⁴ Don’t put it off. Do it now. Don’t rest until you do. ⁵ If you can get out of this trap you have saved yourself like a deer that escapes from a hunter or a bird from the net.

⁶ Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy fellow. Learn from their ways and be wise! ⁷ For though they have no king to make them work, ⁸ yet they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. ⁹ But you—all you do is sleep. When will you wake up? ¹⁰ “Let me sleep a little longer!” Sure, just a little more! ¹¹ And as you sleep, poverty creeps upon you like a robber and destroys you; want attacks you in full armor.

^12-13 Let me describe for you a worthless and a wicked man; first, he is a constant liar; he signals his true intentions to his friends with eyes and feet and fingers. ¹⁴ He is always thinking up new schemes to swindle people. He stirs up trouble everywhere. ¹⁵ But he will be destroyed suddenly, broken beyond hope of healing.

^16-19 For there are six things the Lord hates—no, seven: haughtiness, lying, murdering, plotting evil, eagerness to do wrong, a false witness, sowing discord among brothers.

²⁰ Young man, obey your father and your mother. ²¹ Take to heart all of their advice; keep in mind everything they tell you. ²² Every day and all night long their counsel will lead you and save you from harm; when you wake up in the morning, let their instructions guide you into the new day. ²³ For their advice is a beam of light directed into the dark corners of your mind to warn you of danger and to give you a good life. ²⁴ Their counsel will keep you far away from prostitutes, with all their flatteries, and unfaithful wives of other men.

²⁵ Don’t lust for their beauty. Don’t let their coyness seduce you. ²⁶ For a prostitute will bring a man to poverty, and an adulteress may cost him his very life. ²⁷ Can a man hold fire against his chest and not be burned? ²⁸ Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet? ²⁹ So it is with the man who commits adultery with another’s wife. He shall not go unpunished for this sin. ³⁰ Excuses might even be found for a thief if he steals when he is starving! ³¹ But even so, he is fined seven times as much as he stole, though it may mean selling everything in his house to pay it back.

³² But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys his own soul. ³³ Wounds and constant disgrace are his lot, ³⁴ for the woman’s husband will be furious in his jealousy, and he will have no mercy on you in his day of vengeance. ³⁵ You won’t be able to buy him off no matter what you offer.

7 Follow my advice, my son; always keep it in mind and stick to it. ² Obey me and live! Guard my words as your most precious possession. ³ Write them down,^[f] and also keep them deep within your heart. ⁴ Love wisdom like a sweetheart; make her a beloved member of your family. ⁵ Let her hold you back from affairs with other women—from listening to their flattery.

⁶ I was looking out the window of my house one day ⁷ and saw a simpleminded lad, a young man lacking common sense, ^8-9 walking at twilight down the street to the house of this wayward girl, a prostitute. ¹⁰ She approached him, saucy and pert, and dressed seductively. ^11-12 She was the brash, coarse type, seen often in the streets and markets, soliciting at every corner for men to be her lovers.

¹³ She put her arms around him and kissed him, and with a saucy look she said, “I was just coming to look for you and here you are! ^14-17 Come home with me, and I’ll fix you a wonderful dinner,^[g] and after that—well, my bed is spread with lovely, colored sheets of finest linen imported from Egypt, perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come on, let’s take our fill of love until morning, ¹⁹ for my husband is away on a long trip. ²⁰ He has taken a wallet full of money with him and won’t return for several days.”

²¹ So she seduced him with her pretty speech, her coaxing and her wheedling, until he yielded to her. He couldn’t resist her flattery. ²² He followed her as an ox going to the butcher or as a stag that is trapped, ²³ waiting to be killed with an arrow through its heart. He was as a bird flying into a snare, not knowing the fate awaiting it there.

²⁴ Listen to me, young men, and not only listen but obey; ²⁵ don’t let your desires get out of hand; don’t let yourself think about her. Don’t go near her; stay away from where she walks, lest she tempt you and seduce you. ²⁶ For she has been the ruin of multitudes—a vast host of men have been her victims. ²⁷ If you want to find the road to hell, look for her house.