Holy Bible

Search and read the Bible online

Books

Proverbs 5

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Back to Bible
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely [1] to my understanding ⓘ
2 so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge. ⓙ
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are [2] smoother than oil,
4 in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood ⓚ and as sharp as a double-edged sword. ⓛ
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. ⓜ
6 She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.
7 So now, sons, listen to me, and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth. ⓝ
8 Keep your way far from her. Don’t go near the door of her house. ⓐ
9 Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel;
10 strangers will drain your resources, and your hard-earned pay will end up in a foreigner’s house.
11 At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed,
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction. ⓑ
13 I didn’t obey my teachers or listen closely [3] to my instructors.
14 I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well. ⓒ
16 Should your springs flow in the streets, streams in the public squares? ⓓ
17 They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. ⓔ
19 A loving deer, a graceful doe [4]  — let her breasts always satisfy you; ⓕ be lost in her love forever.
20 Why, my son, would you lose yourself with a forbidden woman or embrace a wayward woman? ⓖ
21 For a man’s ways are before the LORD’s eyes, ⓗ and he considers all his paths. ⓘ
22 A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him; ⓙ he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin. ⓚ
23 He will die because there is no discipline, ⓛ and be lost because of his great stupidity.