Proverbs of Solomon 5 — The Holy Bible

Fornication or Marriage

My son, hold fast to wisdom

And incline your ear to my words,

That you may guard good thinking;

And I command you with the perception of my lips.

Do not join yourself to a base woman,

For honey drips from the lips of a prostitute,

Or for a season she is pleasing to your taste;

Afterward, however, you will find her more bitter than gall

And sharper than a two-edged sword.

For feet lacking discernment lead those using her down into Hades with death;

Her footsteps are not planted,

For she does not travel the ways of life;

And her paths are slippery and not easy to discern.

The Perils of Sex outside of Marriage

Now therefore, my son, hear me,

And do not make my words invalid;

Make your way distant from her

And do not come near the doors of her house,

That you may not give away your life to others

And your existence to the merciless;

That strangers may not be filled with your strength,

And your labors go into the houses of strangers,

And you should feel regret at the last,

When the flesh of your body is consumed;

And you will say, “How I hated instruction

And turned my heart away from reproofs;

I did not hear the voice of my instructor and teacher,

Nor did I incline my ear;

Little by little I was in every evil

In the midst of the church and congregation.”

The Sanctity of Marriage

Drink waters from your vessels

And from the fountains of your spring.

Do not let the waters from your fountain be spilled by you,

But let your waters pass through your wide places;

Let them be only for you,

And let no stranger partake with you;

Let the fountain of your water be for you alone,

And rejoice together with the wife of your youth.

Let your loving deer and graceful colt keep company with you,

And let her alone go before you and be with you at all times;

For in living with her love, you will be great.

Another Warning

Do not be intimate with a strange woman,

Neither cling to the embrace of a woman not your own;

For the ways of man are before the eyes of God,

And He keeps close watch on all his paths.

Lawless women ensnare a man,

But each man is bound by the chains of his own sins.

Such a man dies with the uninstructed

And is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance;

And he is destroyed by lack of discernment.