Proverbs 5

Chapters 1–9 of Proverbs are a collection of a father's instructions to his son, and chapter 5 is one of them. Proverbs 4 taught the way of wisdom and the keeping of the heart. This chapter continues that teaching by urging the son to avoid the enticement of the "strange woman" and to be faithful to his wife.

Outline

• Verses 1–2 The father tells his son to attend to wisdom and understanding and to keep discretion (careful restraint).
• Verses 3–6 The lips of the strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But her end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword, and her steps lead down to death and take hold on hell (the grave).
• Verses 7–14 The father warns his son not to come near even the door of her house. Otherwise he will lose his honor, his years, and his wealth to others. At the last, when his flesh and body are consumed, he will lament that he hated instruction.
• Verses 15–20 Through the image of drinking water from one's own cistern and well, the father urges his son to rejoice in the wife of his youth. He likens the wife to a loving hind and a pleasant roe.
• Verses 21–23 The ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD. The wicked are held fast by the cords of their own sins and die for lack of instruction.

Key Verses

• Proverbs 5:18 "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth" — The chapter does not stop at prohibition but affirms delight within marriage.
• Proverbs 5:21 "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD" — This is the basis of the warning that even secret conduct lies open before God.
• Proverbs 5:22 "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins" — This illustrates the principle of cause and effect in Proverbs: sin ensnares the one who commits it.

People and Places

• Father and son: The teacher and the learner. Following the book's title (Proverbs 1:1), the instruction is traditionally read as the teaching of Solomon.
• The strange woman (the stranger): A woman unknown to the young man who lures him with sweet words.
• The wife of one's youth: The one whom a man is to love faithfully throughout his life.
• The LORD: The One who examines all the ways of man.
• Hell (Sheol): The place to which the dead were thought to descend; in Hebrew, Sheol.

Points for Reflection

• The "strange woman" and the "stranger" are usually read as a warning against actual adultery. Some interpreters, comparing this figure with the foolish woman of Proverbs 9, also read her as a symbol of temptation in general that opposes wisdom.
• The cistern and well imagery of verses 15–17 is commonly understood to refer to sexual faithfulness between husband and wife. Verse 16 is rendered as a question in some translations and as a statement in others.
• The same warning continues in the latter part of Proverbs 6 and in Proverbs 7.
• In the New Testament, the chapter connects with the exhortation to flee fornication in 1 Corinthians 6:18 and the exhortation to hold marriage in honor in Hebrews 13:4.

In the Korean Church

Verses 18–19 are frequently cited in sermons on marriage and the marital relationship and in wedding services.