Bible Strands
Proverbs 5:20
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The father addresses his son, pivoting from the preceding verse’s description of marital intimacy to a direct warning against illicit relationships.
The words — The Hebrew לָמָה (lamah) asks "why?" regarding תְחַבֵּק (tachbek), literally "you embrace," directed toward a זָרָה (zarah), a foreign or strange woman.
The thread — This warning against a "stranger" or "foreign woman" recurs in Proverbs 6:24 and 7:5 as a safeguard against seductive speech, while 1 Kings 11:1 records Solomon’s own historical failure to avoid such alliances.
Why it lands — The text demands a rational evaluation of emotional entanglement, asking the reader to weigh the immediate appeal of illicit intimacy against the divine examination of all human paths described in Proverbs 5:21.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Cross-references
- Proverbs 6:24 to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
- Proverbs 7:5 that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.
- 1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- Proverbs 22:14 The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the LORD will fall into it.
- Proverbs 23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.
- Proverbs 23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
- Proverbs 2:16 It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words