Proverbs 5.7-11
“And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner..”
Solomon admonishes his sons … plural. He is saying, “Listen up everyone! Stay away from sexual foolishness. Stay far away from the seductress. Don’t even go hear her house.
He then warns us. If you don’t listen to me, he says, you will end up giving away your honor and vitality. The word used here is hod, and it typically means “splendor” or “majesty.” However, here the word probably refers to a person’s strength, vigor, or vitality. It may mean that the son expends his sexual energy on the strange woman.
All sin is life-draining, but sexual sin especially so. Verse 10 uses another word for one’s life force (komah), which he says is diminished because of illegitimate sexual activity. Verse 10b implies that the person’s material wealth, generated by hard work, also ends up in the house of a “foreigner.”
Note that Solomon moves from the singular “strange woman” to the plural “strangers.” There is a plurality of people who end up exploiting the sexual fool.
Proverbs 5.11-14
“… and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”
Finally, verse 11 foresees a sad end, when the person’s body gives out because of his illicit behavior. This could be a reference to the physical impact of STDs contracted through promiscuity.
And the disobedient person looks back on his life and laments that he did not listen to his father and other mentors; he deeply regrets that he rejected discipline and instruction. The consequences are a ruined life … including a ruined reputation in the fellowship.
Proverbs 5.15-17
“Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.”
Solomon now moves from warning about immoral sexual indulgence to encouraging healthy sexual intimacy. Again, the Lord designed sex for his people, and he wants husbands and wives to enjoy sexual intimacy with each other. God could have made reproduction a mechanical process with no emotional or physical feelings. Instead, he gave us the gift of sexual pleasure and connection.
We must be wise and faithful stewards of the gift of sex. Solomon uses tasteful but clear metaphors to urge the son toward a vital sexual relationship with the wife of his youth. He encourages his son to drink water from his own well … that is, find sexual enjoyment and fulfillment with his own wife rather than another woman.
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (I Peter 2.11)
