Many of the Proverbs appear as couplets, a few verses on one topic and then a few verses on another. (It’s the type of wisdom that can be cross-stitched on a pillow or printed on a bumper sticker.) Not so with Proverbs chapter 5. The NRSV suggest the heading of Warning against Impurity and Infidelity. The entire chapter weaves the warning about going down the path of marital unfaithfulness. It’s words of wisdom are pointed and poignant.

Proverbs 5:1-6

5 My child, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
² so that you may hold on to prudence,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
³ For the lips of a loose woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,
⁴ but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol.
⁶ She does not keep straight to the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

 ⁷ And now, my child, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸ Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
⁹ lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
¹⁰ and strangers take their fill of your wealth,
and your labors go to the house of an alien,
¹¹ and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
¹² and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ Now I am at the point of utter ruin
in the public assembly.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
¹⁶ Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
¹⁷ Let them be for yourself alone
and not for sharing with strangers.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
¹⁹ a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
May her breasts satisfy you at all times;
may you be intoxicated always by her love.
²⁰ Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
²¹ For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,
and he examines all their paths.
²² The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,
and they are caught in the coils of their sin.
²³ They die for lack of discipline,
and because of their great folly they are lost.

Enough said?

Prayer

God, let us consider the depth of our vows, our relationships, and how you intend us to live the joyful lives you have offered us. Amen.