Proverbs 5-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Warning against Impurity and Infidelity
5 My child, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,(A)
2 so that you may hold on to prudence,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman[a] drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,(B)
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.(C)
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol.
6 She does not keep straight to the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, my child,[b] listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.(D)
8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,(E)
9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
10 and strangers take their fill of your wealth,
and your labors go to the house of an alien,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!(F)
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 Now I am at the point of utter ruin
in the public assembly.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?(G)
17 Let them be for yourself alone
and not for sharing with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,(H)
19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
May her breasts satisfy you at all times;
may you be intoxicated always by her love.(I)
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?[c](J)
21 For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,
and he examines all their paths.(K)
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,
and they are caught in the coils of their sin.(L)
23 They die for lack of discipline,
and because of their great folly they are lost.(M)
Practical Admonitions
6 My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,
if you have bound yourself to another,[d](N)
2 you are snared by the utterance of your lips,[e]
caught by the words of your mouth.
3 So do this, my child, and save yourself,
for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
go, hurry,[f] and plead with your neighbor.
4 Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;(O)
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,[g]
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.(P)
6 Go to the ant, you lazybones;
consider its ways and be wise.(Q)
7 Without having any chief
or officer or ruler,
8 it prepares its food in summer
and gathers its sustenance in harvest.(R)
9 How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
When will you rise from your sleep?(S)
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.(T)
12 A scoundrel and a villain
goes around with crooked speech,(U)
13 winking the eyes, shuffling the feet,
pointing the fingers,(V)
14 with perverted mind devising evil,
continually sowing discord;(W)
15 on such a one calamity will descend suddenly,
in a moment, damage beyond repair.(X)
16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,(Y)
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,(Z)
19 a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.(AA)
20 My child, keep your father’s commandment,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.(AB)
21 Bind them upon your heart always;
tie them around your neck.(AC)
22 When you walk, they[h] will lead you;
when you lie down, they[i] will watch over you;
and when you awake, they[j] will talk with you.(AD)
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,(AE)
24 to preserve you from the wife of another,[k]
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.[l](AF)
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes,(AG)
26 for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,[m]
but the wife of another stalks a man’s precious life.(AH)
27 Can fire be carried in the bosom
without burning one’s clothes?
28 Or can one walk on hot coals
without scorching the feet?
29 So is he who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.(AI)
30 Thieves are not despised who steal only
to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.
31 Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold;
they will forfeit all the goods of their house.(AJ)
32 But he who commits adultery has no sense;
he who does it destroys himself.(AK)
33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he will show no restraint when he takes revenge.(AL)
35 He will accept no compensation
and will refuse a bribe no matter how great.
The False Attractions of Adultery
7 My child, keep my words
and store up my commandments with you;(AM)
2 keep my commandments and live;
keep my teachings as the apple[n] of your eye;(AN)
3 bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.(AO)
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
5 that they may keep you from the loose woman,[o]
from the adulteress[p] with her smooth words.(AP)
6 For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
7 and I saw among the simple ones,
I observed among the youths,
a young man without sense,(AQ)
8 passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house(AR)
9 in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.(AS)
10 Then a woman comes toward him
decked out like a prostitute, with hidden intent.
11 She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;(AT)
12 now in the street, now in the squares,
and at every corner she lies in wait.(AU)
13 She seizes him and kisses him,
and with impudent face she says to him:
14 “I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;(AV)
15 so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!
16 I have decked my couch with coverings,
colored spreads of Egyptian linen;(AW)
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
19 For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
20 He took a bag of money with him;
he will not come home until full moon.”
21 With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.(AX)
22 Right away he follows her
and goes like an ox to the slaughter
or bounds like a stag toward the trap[q]
23 until an arrow pierces its entrails.
He is like a bird rushing into a snare,
not knowing that it will cost him his life.(AY)
24 And now, my children, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.(AZ)
25 Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths.(BA)
26 For many are those she has laid low,
and numerous are her victims.(BB)
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.(BC)
The Gifts of Wisdom
8 Does not wisdom call
and understanding raise her voice?(BD)
2 On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:(BE)
4 “To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all who live.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence;
acquire intelligence, you who lack it.(BF)
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right,(BG)
7 for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.(BH)
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to one who understands
and right to those who find knowledge.(BI)
10 Take my instruction instead of silver
and knowledge rather than choice gold,(BJ)
11 for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.(BK)
12 I, wisdom, live with prudence,
and I attain knowledge and discretion.(BL)
13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.(BM)
14 I have good advice and sound wisdom;
I have insight; I have strength.(BN)
15 By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;(BO)
16 by me rulers rule,
and nobles, all who govern rightly.
17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.(BP)
18 Riches and honor are with me,
enduring wealth and prosperity.(BQ)
19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
and my yield than choice silver.(BR)
20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
21 endowing with wealth those who love me
and filling their treasuries.
Wisdom’s Part in Creation
22 “The Lord created me at the beginning[r] of his work,[s]
the first of his acts of long ago.(BS)
23 Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.(BT)
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,(BU)
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields[t]
or the world’s first bits of soil.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,(BV)
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,(BW)
30 then I was beside him, like a master worker,[u]
and I was daily his[v] delight,
playing before him always,(BX)
31 playing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.(BY)
32 “And now, my children, listen to me:
happy are those who keep my ways.(BZ)
33 Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
34 Happy is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.(CA)
35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord,(CB)
36 but those who miss me injure themselves;
all who hate me love death.”(CC)
Notas al pie
- 5.3 Heb strange woman
- 5.7 Gk Vg: Heb children
- 5.20 Heb alien woman
- 6.1 Or a stranger
- 6.2 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb the words of your mouth
- 6.3 Or humble yourself
- 6.5 Cn: Heb from the hand
- 6.22 Heb it
- 6.22 Heb it
- 6.22 Heb it
- 6.24 Gk: MT the evil woman
- 6.24 Heb alien woman
- 6.26 Cn Compare Gk Syr Vg Tg: Heb for because of a harlot to a piece of bread
- 7.2 Heb little man
- 7.5 Heb strange woman
- 7.5 Heb alien woman
- 7.22 Cn Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 8.22 Or me as the beginning
- 8.22 Heb way
- 8.26 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 8.30 Or little child
- 8.30 Gk: Heb lacks his
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.