Saturday, February 24, 2024

Proverbs 5, annotated.

This translation is from the New Jerusalem Bible. Other translations are available hereInformation about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.  A post dealing with part of this chapter is hyperlinked at the end of this post.

 

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My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully to what I know; 2so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. 

 

Take no notice of a loose-living woman, 3for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps; 6far from following the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.

 

7And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say: 8set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house, 9or she will hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity, 10and strangers will batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger, 11and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you will groan 12and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned all correction; 13I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me. 14Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'

 

15Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring. 16Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares: 17let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you. 18May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth, 19fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.

 

20Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another? 21For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey all human paths. 22The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin. 23For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.

 

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son בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

pay attention = קָשַׁב = qashab Blue Letter Bible to hear, be attentive, heed, incline (of ears), attend (of ears), hearken, pay attention, listen; give attention; to prick up the ears; regard

 

wisdom = חָכְמָה = ḥāḵmâ  Blue Letter Bible a divine attribute or energy; cleverness; shrewdness; skill; prudence; dexterity; wit; piety towards God

 

listen carefully = אֹזֶן = 'ōzen  Blue Letter Bible  ear, as organ of hearing; to uncover the ear to reveal; open ears of, reveal to; to place in anyone’s ear; to hear with anyone’s ears 

AND

 נָטָה = natah Blue Letter Bible to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow; turn aside, incline, decline, bend down; hold out; incline, influence; outstretched; wrest, cause to yield; spread oneself; seduce

 

understanding = תָּבוּן = tāḇûn  Blue Letter Bible  understanding, intelligence; the act of understanding; skill; the faculty of understanding; insight; the object of knowledge; teacher (personification); discretion; reason; skillfulness;  wisdom

 

preserve = שָׁמַר = šāmar  Blue Letter Bible  keep, guard, observe, give heed; retain, treasure up (in memory); preserve; attend to

 

discretion = מְזִמָּה = mzimmâ  Blue Letter Bible   purpose, discretion; sagacity; thought; prudence; counsel; power of devising

 

lips = שָׂפָה = śāp̄â  Blue Letter Bible   lip, language, speech; edge, shore, bank (of cup, sea, river, etc), border 

 

guard = נָצַר = nāṣar Blue Letter Bible  watch over; observe, guard with fidelity; kept close, be blockaded; protect, maintain, obey; preserve 

 

knowledge = דַּעַת = daʿaṯ  Blue Letter Bible   knowledge, perception, skill; discernment, understanding, wisdom; cunning; knowing; intelligence

 

loose living woman = זוּר = zûr Blue Letter Bible to be strange, be a stranger; to become estranged; foreigner, an enemy; loathsome; prostitute, harlot; alienated; profane; turn aside; depart; of another family; profligate 

 

drip with honey = חָלָק = ḥālāq Blue Letter Bible  flattering, smooth; slippery, deceitful 

 

son בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

listen = שָׁמַע = šāmaʿ  Blue Letter Bible   listen to, obey; perceive by ear; hear with attention or interest; give heed; consent, agree; yield to; be obedient; hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.); hear and answer

 

deviate = סוּר = sûr  Blue Letter Bible turn aside, depart; avoid; be removed; depose; put aside, leave undone, retract, reject, abolish; eschew; turn off; rebel; put away, withdraw; sour; turn aside to oneself; be without

 

what I say = אֵמֶר = 'ēmer  Blue Letter Bible  utterance, speech, word, saying, promise; command, mandate; something said; appointed unto him; saying, speech, word 

 

course דֶּרֶךְ = dereḵ  Blue Letter Bible  way, road, distance, journey, manner; path; mode; habit, way; course of life; mode of action

 

far from = רָחַק = rāḥaq Blue Letter Bible  be or become far, be or become distant, be removed, go far away; send far away; make or exhibit distance, be gone far; remove, put far away; loose; widen; recede; cast; wander; refrain; a good way off; remote 

 

near = קָרַב = qāraḇ Blue Letter Bible to come near, approach, enter into, draw near; cause to approach 

 

door = פֶּתַח = peṯaḥ  Blue Letter Bible   opening, doorway, entrance; gate

 

house = בַּיִת = bayiṯ  Blue Letter Bible   house, dwelling, habitation, abode; place; receptacle; home; house as containing a family; palace, fortress; inner part, family

 

hated = שָׂנֵא = śānē'  Blue Letter Bible  to hate, be hateful; enemy, foe; be odious

 

discipline = מוּסָר = muwcar  Blue Letter Bible  discipline, chastening, correction; reproof, warning or instruction; doctrine, instruction, rebuke; admonition; restraint

 

spurned = נָאַץ = nā'aṣ  Blue Letter Bible  spurn, contemn, despise, abhor; deride, reject; blaspheme, speak evil

 

reproof = תּוֹכֵחָה = towkechah  Blue Letter Bible  rebuke, correction, reproof, punishment, chastisement; argument, impeachment; refutation; chiding; arguing down, contradicting

 

attend = שָׁמַע = šāmaʿ  Blue Letter Bible   listen to, obey; perceive by ear; hear with attention or interest; give heed; consent, agree; yield to; be obedient; hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.); hear and answer

 

voice = קוֹל = qôl  Blue Letter Bible  proclaim; command, entreat; claim; sing out; thundering; with a loud voice; voice, sound, noise;  call aloud; a voice or sound; bleating, crackling, lowing, neighing, stamping of feet; noise of inanimate objects; lightness, frivolity

 

masters = יָרָה = yarah Blue Letter Bible point out; show; direct, teach, instruct; throw, shoot, cast, pour; to flow as water (i.e. to rain); point out (as if by aiming the finger); direct, inform, instruct, lay, shew; lay foundations; to sprinkle, water; to send out the hand

 

listen = נָטָה = natah Blue Letter Bible to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow; to turn aside, incline, decline, bend down; hold out; incline, influence; outstretched; wrest, cause to yield; spread oneself; seduce

AND

 אֹזֶן = 'ōzen  Blue Letter Bible  ear, as organ of hearing; to uncover the ear to reveal; open ears of, reveal to; to place in anyone’s ear; to hear with anyone’s ears 

 

teach = לָמַד = lāmaḏ Blue Letter Bible  learn, teach, exercise in; to be taught, be trained; to goad; instruct; chastise, discipline; to train, accustom

 

Drink שָׁתָה = shathah Blue Letter Bible  feast, banquet; be drunk; to imbibe (literally or figuratively); drink up; drink together

 

water = מַיִם = mayim Blue Letter Bible water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen

 

storage well = בּוֹר = bôr  Blue Letter Bible  pit; well, cistern; dungeon; fountain; sepulcher   

 

fresh water נָזַל = nazal Blue Letter Bible to flow, distil, flow forth or down, trickle, drop; streams, floods (participle); cause to flow; shed by trickling; gush out, melt, pour (down), running water, stream; fluids; like other verbs of flowing; is to be construed as an acc. of whatever flows plentifully

 

spring = בְּאֵר = b'ēr  Blue Letter Bible  well, often made by digging; pit, spring

 

alone =בַּד = bad Blue Letter Bible  by itself; apart; separation; alone, by itself, besides, a part, separation, being alone

 

stranger = זוּר = zûr Blue Letter Bible be strange, be a stranger; become estranged; foreigner, an enemy; loathsome; prostitute, harlot; alienated; profane; turn aside; depart; of another family; profligate 

Find joy with the wife you married in your youth

 

Find joy = שָׂמַח = śāmaḥ  Blue Letter Bible  rejoice, be glad; gladden, make glad; brighten up; make blithe or gleesome; cheer up; make merry; take pleasure in; joyful or cheerful   

 

wife = אִשָּׁה = 'iššâ  Blue Letter Bible woman, wife, female; together 

 

youth = נָעֻר = nāʿur Blue Letter Bible  youth, early life; childhood; adolescence

 

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Scriptural directions for husbands, annotated—Proverbs 5:15-19  

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