Proverbs 5
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)
Proverbs 6:20-35
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
20 My child, keep your father’s commandment,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.(A)
21 Bind them upon your heart always;
tie them around your neck.(B)
22 When you walk, they[a] will lead you;
when you lie down, they[b] will watch over you;
and when you awake, they[c] will talk with you.(C)
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,(D)
24 to preserve you from the wife of another,[d]
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.[e](E)
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes,(F)
26 for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,[f]
but the wife of another stalks a man’s precious life.(G)
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.(H)
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.(I)
32 But he who commits adultery has no sense;
he who does it destroys himself.(J)
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.(K)
35 He will accept no compensation
and will refuse a bribe no matter how great.
Proverbs 7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The False Attractions of Adultery
7 My child, keep my words
and store up my commandments with you;(A)
2 keep my commandments and live;
keep my teachings as the apple[a] of your eye;(B)
3 bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.(C)
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
5 that they may keep you from the loose woman,[b]
from the adulteress[c] with her smooth words.(D)
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,(E)
8 passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house(F)
9 in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.(G)
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;(H)
12 now in the street, now in the squares,
and at every corner she lies in wait.(I)
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;(J)
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;(K)
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.(L)
22 Right away he follows her
and goes like an ox to the slaughter
or bounds like a stag toward the trap[d]
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.(M)
24 And now, my children, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.(N)
25 Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths.(O)
26 For many are those she has laid low,
and numerous are her victims.(P)
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.(Q)
Proverbs 22:14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 The mouth of a loose woman[a] is a deep pit;
he with whom the Lord is angry falls into it.
Footnotes
- 22.14 Heb strange woman
Proverbs 30:20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
20 This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I have done no wrong.”(A)
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.