Wisdom · Chapter 5 of 31
Proverbs 5
Solomon urges his son to attend to wisdom and guard against the seductive words of the adulteress, whose sweetness ends in bitterness and death. He warns that her house leads down to the grave, then turns to a positive charge: rejoice in the wife of your youth, drink from your own cistern. The chapter closes reminding that every path lies open before the LORD's eyes.
What happens in Proverbs 5
The father calls his son to bow his ear to wisdom and keep discretion. He describes the strange woman whose lips drop like honeycomb and whose speech is smoother than oil, yet whose end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. He pleads that the young man remove his way far from her door, lest he give his honor to others and his years to the cruel, and mourn at the last with a body wasted, confessing that he hated instruction and despised reproof.
Then Solomon commends faithful marriage: drink waters from your own cistern, let your fountain be blessed, rejoice with the wife of your youth. He closes with the sobering truth that the LORD watches all a man's ways, and the wicked are held fast by the cords of their own sins.
Proverbs 5 in context
These verses belong to the opening collection of Proverbs, chapters 1 through 9, a series of fatherly lectures preparing a young man for life. Ancient Israel prized wisdom passed from parent to child. Chapter 5 is one of several warnings against the strange woman, a figure of adultery and, more broadly, of any path that promises pleasure but delivers ruin.
The teaching is practical covenant instruction, rooting faithfulness in reverence for the watching LORD.
Main themes of Proverbs 5
Proverbs 5 (KJV)
1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. 3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. 7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. 15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. 16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. 18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 19Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. 20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? 21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. 22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Verses to carry from Proverbs 5
“For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:”Proverbs 5:3
“Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.”Proverbs 5:18
“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.”Proverbs 5:21
Thematic connection
How Proverbs 5 points to Jesus
Proverbs 5 draws no line straight to Christ, so the connection is thematic. Yet its themes flower in him. The chapter warns that our ways lie open before the eyes of the LORD; Jesus later teaches that adultery begins in the heart's gaze, deepening rather than softening this call to purity (Matthew 5:28). Where Solomon holds up faithful marriage as a blessed fountain, the New Testament names Christ the bridegroom and the church his bride, and Jesus himself is the living water and the well that satisfies so that we thirst no more (John 4:14).
The wisdom that keeps a young man from ruin is finally personal: Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom, guards the heart that the adulteress cannot reach.
Questions about Proverbs 5
Why does the father dwell so long on where the path ends?
Because temptation sells the first step and hides the last. The adulteress offers honey now; the text insists on naming the wormwood, the wasted years, the final mourning. Wisdom is largely the discipline of seeing the whole road, not just the pleasant entrance, and choosing accordingly before it is too late. It is foresight applied to desire itself.
How is faithful marriage described here?
Not as grim duty but as a blessed fountain and a satisfying love. Solomon calls the son to rejoice in the wife of his youth and to be ravished with her love. Purity in this chapter is guarded joy, a well kept clean so its waters stay sweet, rather than mere avoidance of what is wrong.
Reflection
Consider the paths that whisper sweetly to you today. Wisdom does not merely forbid; it invites you to a deeper, lasting joy under the eyes of God who sees all. Where might you be tasting honey while ignoring the wormwood? Ask the Lord to guard your gaze and satisfy your heart at the true fountain.
A prayer from Proverbs 5
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