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Summary

Proverbs 5:1–14 – The Bitter End of Adultery

What happens: The father warns that the adulteress’s lips drip honey, but her end is bitter and sharp. Her path leads to death, and following her wastes strength, honor, and years. The victim groans at the end, regretting that he ignored correction.

What it means: Sin promises sweetness but pays in sorrow, revealing the deceitfulness of desire. God’s commands protect joy and future usefulness. Ignoring rebuke is costly because God is just and reality is moral. Wisdom listens early and flees traps.

Proverbs 5:15–20 – Rejoice in Your Own Marriage

What happens: The son is told to drink water from his own cistern and to rejoice in the wife of his youth. He should be captivated by her love, not by a stranger. Marital faithfulness is celebrated as blessing.

What it means: God designed marital intimacy as exclusive and joyful, showing His goodness. Covenant faithfulness in marriage mirrors God’s loyal love. Contentment protects from temptation. Wisdom nourishes, not steals.

Proverbs 5:21–23 – God Sees and Judges

What happens: A man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and God weighs all paths. The wicked are held fast by their own sins and die for lack of discipline. Folly entangles and destroys.

What it means: Nothing is hidden from God’s holy gaze, affirming accountability. Sin enslaves, but wisdom leads to freedom and life. Discipline is a path of grace that keeps us from ruin. God’s justice and mercy call us back to obedience.

Application

  • Flee flirtation and secrecy; remove access to tempting contexts.
  • Invest in your spouse with time, affection, and praise.
  • Welcome correction today rather than regret tomorrow.

Bible

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 twoedged 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.

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