Fatal Attraction: Guard Yourself against Adultery – Proverbs 5:1-23; Proverbs 6:23-35
Proverbs 5:1-23
5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my insight, (2) so that you may practice discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. (3) The lips of an adulteress* drip with honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; (4) but in the end she is as bitter as gall and sharp as a double-edged sword. (5) Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. (6) She gives no thought to the level path of life; her ways are unstable, but she does not know it. (7) Now then, my son, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. (8) Keep to a path that is far from her, and do not go near the door of her house; (9) or else you will give away your honor and give your years to those who are cruel. (10) Stay away from her or else strangers will feast on your wealth and you will labor in the house of an alien. (11) You will grieve over the outcome of your life, when your flesh and body are worn out. (12) Then you will say, “How I hated instruction! And my heart despised correction! (13) I would not obey the voice of my teachers, or listen to those who instructed me! (14) I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly!”
(15) Drink water from your own cistern, fresh water from your own well. (16) Should your spring overflow in the streets—streams of water in the public square? (17) Let them be for yourself alone, not to be shared with strangers. (18) May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. (19) As a loving doe and a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be ravished with her love. (20) Why, my son, should you be ravished with an adulteress?* Why should you embrace the bosom of a stranger? (21) A man’s ways are in full view of the eyes of Jehovah; he watches all of a man’s paths. (22) The wicked man’s own iniquities will ensnare him, and he will be held tight by the cords of his sins. (23) He will die due to lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
*In verses 3 and 20 the Hebrew is literally, “a foreign woman”
Proverbs 6:23-35
6 (23) The commandment is a lampstand, and the law is a light, and the correction provided by discipline is the way of life, (24) intended to guard you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the adulteress’s* tongue. (25) Do not lust for her beauty in your heart, and do not let her captivate you with her eyes; (26) for on account of a prostitute a man is reduced to eating a crust of bread—the adulteress preys upon your very life. (27) Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? (28) Or can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? (29) So is the case of the man who goes in to his neighbor’s wife: whoever touches her will not go unpunished. (30) Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. (31) Yet if he is caught, he must repay sevenfold; even if it costs him all the wealth of his household. (32) He who commits adultery with a woman has no sense: it is done by the man who wants to destroy himself. (33) Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; (34) for jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. (35) He will not accept any compensation; he will not be pacified even though you give him many gifts.
*Literally, “the foreigner’s tongue”
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
