Bible Strands
Proverbs 5:4
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The father addresses his son in a wisdom discourse warning against the forbidden woman. He describes the inevitable consequence that follows the initial attraction.
The words — אַחֲרִיתָהּ ('acharitah) translates to "her end," and מָרָה (marah) means "bitter." These terms anchor the warning in the final outcome rather than the initial experience.
The thread — The motif of deceptive sweetness turning to bitterness and sharpness echoes in Ecclesiastes 7:26 and Psalms 55:21. Both passages contrast smooth speech with hidden danger or bitter results.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader to look past immediate pleasure to anticipate the final result. It instructs the audience to evaluate choices by their end point, not their surface appeal.
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
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.
- Psalms 55:21 His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
- Psalms 57:4 My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- Proverbs 9:18 But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- Judges 16:4 Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
- Judges 16:15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she asked, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and failed to reveal to me the source of your great strength!”
- Proverbs 6:24 to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
- Proverbs 7:22 He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,
- Proverbs 23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit, and an adulteress is a narrow well.