Proverbs 5:31 Exposition on Adultery and Marriage Faithfulness

Note on the Reference: Proverbs 5 contains only 23 verses in all standard Hebrew and English texts. There is no Proverbs 5:31. This exposition addresses Proverbs 5 as a complete unit, focusing particularly on verses 15–23, which treat marriage faithfulness as the antidote to adultery.

The Text and Its Context

Proverbs 5 opens with a father's warning to his son about the "strange woman" (verses 3–6), whose speech is smooth as oil but whose end is "bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword." The chapter pivots at verse 15: "Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well." This metaphor for marital fidelity continues through verse 19, urging the son to "rejoice with the wife of thy youth" and be "ravished always with her love." The chapter closes with a sobering reminder: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings" (verse 21). The adulterer's own iniquities "shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins" (verse 22).

John Gill introduces Proverbs 5 by noting that "the general instruction of this chapter is to avoid whoredom, and make use of lawful marriage, and keep to that," framing the entire discourse as a contrast between destructive adultery and life-giving covenant marriage ^[7].

Historical and Legal Background

In ancient Israel, adultery was not merely a private moral failing but "a great social wrong, as well as a great sin" ^[1]. The Mosaic law defined adultery specifically as "conjugal infidelity"—illicit intercourse involving a married or betrothed woman ^[1]. According to Smith's Bible Dictionary, "the parties to this crime, according to Jewish law, were a married woman and a man who was not her husband," and the penalty was death by stoning for both parties ^[2]. The law applied equally to betrothed women, provided they were free ^[2]. Numbers 5:11–31 prescribed the ordeal of the "water of jealousy" for a suspected wife, though Easton's notes "there is, however, no recorded instance of the application of this law" ^[1]. Rabbinic sources later elaborated on evidentiary standards: the Babylonian Talmud interprets Numbers 5:13 to require two witnesses for a conviction, explaining that the singular "witness" in the text actually indicates the absence of the required pair ^[5].

Key Terms and Imagery

The chapter's central metaphor—"Drink waters out of thine own cistern"—employs the imagery of water sources to represent exclusive sexual intimacy within marriage. Cisterns and wells were precious resources in an arid climate, carefully guarded and not shared promiscuously. The parallel structure in verses 15–17 emphasizes ownership and exclusivity: "Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee." This stands in stark contrast to the "strange woman" of verses 3–6, whose path "moveth" unpredictably and whose ways "thou canst not know them" (verse 6).

Verse 21 provides the theological foundation: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings." The Tyndale commentary on this verse observes, "Even if a man keeps an illicit relationship secret from his family and society, nothing is hidden from the Lord. Adultery is a sin against God" ^[6]. This echoes Joseph's response to Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39:8–9, where he refuses adultery precisely because it would be sin "against God" ^[6].

Exegetical Decisions and Interpretive Range

The chapter's structure presents a deliberate pedagogical strategy: negative warning (verses 3–14), positive instruction (verses 15–20), and theological grounding (verses 21–23). Commentators debate whether the "strange woman" represents literal foreign prostitutes, Israelite adulteresses, or a personification of folly itself. The Hebrew term zarah can mean "foreign" or simply "other" (i.e., another man's wife). The context of verses 15–20, which assume the son has a wife of his own, suggests the warning addresses married men tempted toward extramarital affairs, not merely young bachelors visiting prostitutes.

The chapter's closing image—"he shall be holden with the cords of his sins" (verse 22)—depicts sin as self-entangling. The adulterer becomes his own jailer, bound not by external punishment but by the internal logic of transgression. This anticipates Jesus' expansion of the commandment in Matthew 5:28, where "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" ^[4]. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown explain this as looking "with the intent to do so... or, with the full consent of his will, to feed thereby his unholy desires" ^[4].

Function in Christian Tradition

Early Christian writers seized upon Proverbs 5's positive vision of marriage. Athenagoras, writing in the second century, describes Christian marriage as ordered toward procreation: "as the husbandman throwing the seed into the ground awaits the harvest, not sowing more upon it, so to us the procreation of children is the measure of our indulgence in appetite" ^[8]. This ascetic reading, while foreign to the chapter's celebration of erotic delight ("be thou ravished always with her love"), reflects the patristic tendency to subordinate pleasure to purpose.

Medieval scholasticism engaged Proverbs 5 in debates over divorce. Aquinas, treating Matthew 5:32's exception clause, argues that "Our Lord permitted a man to put away his wife on account of fornication, in punishment of the unfaithful party and in favor of the faithful party" ^[3]. Charles Hodge, representing Reformed orthodoxy, insists that Matthew's exception "must stand" despite its omission in Mark and Luke, since "one expression of the will of Christ is as authoritative and as satisfactory as a thousand repetitions could make it" ^[9]. Yet Origen puzzles over the apparent tension: to tolerate grievous sins beyond adultery "will appear to be irrational; but again on the other hand to act contrary to the design of the teaching of the Saviour, every one would acknowledge to be impious" ^[10].

Proverbs 5 thus functions as Scripture's most sustained positive case for marital fidelity, grounding sexual ethics not in mere prohibition but in the goodness of covenant love, observed always by the God who "pondereth all" our ways.

Sources

Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Adultery — Conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and an unmarried woman was fornication. Adultery was regarded as a great social wrong, as well as a great sin. The Mosaic law (Num. 5:11-31) prescribed that the suspected wife should be tried by the ordeal of the "water of jealousy." There is, however, no recorded instance of the application of this law. In subsequent times the Rabbis made various regulations with the view of disc”
Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Adultery — (Exodus 20:14) The parties to this crime, according to Jewish law, were a married woman and a man who was not her husband. The Mosaic penalty was that both the guilty parties should be stoned, and it applied as well to the betrothed as to the married woman, provided she were free. (22:22-24) A bondwoman so offending was to be scourged, and the man was to make a trespass offering. (Leviticus 19:20-22) At a later time, and when owing, to Gentile example, the marriage tie became a looser bond of union, public feeling in regard to adultery changed, and the pena”
theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Supplement (Supplementum), Of the Impediment That Supervenes to Marriage after Its Consummation, Namely Fornication, Art. 1: Article: Whether it is lawful for a husband to put away his wife on account of fornication? I answer that, Our Lord permitted a man to put away his wife on account of fornication, in punishment of the unfaithful party and in favor of the faithful party, so that the latter is not bound to marital intercourse with the unfaithful one. There are however seven cases to be excepted in which it is not lawful to put away a wife who has committed fornic”
Matthew (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Matthew 5:28: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her--with the intent to do so, as the same expression is used in Mat 6:1; or, with the full consent of his will, to feed thereby his unholy desires. hath committed adultery with her already in his heart--We are not to suppose, from the word here used--"adultery"--that our Lord means to restrict the breach of this commandment to married persons, or to criminal intercourse with such. The expressions, "whosoever looketh," and "looketh upon a woman," seem clearly to extend the range of ”
Babylonian Talmud (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 31b.10: From where are these matters derived? As the Sages taught in reference to the verse describing the circumstances in which a woman defiled through an act of adultery becomes prohibited to her husband, which states: “And a man lie with her carnally… and there be no witness [ ed ] against her” (Numbers 5:13); the verse is speaking of a lack of two witnesses. When the verse refers to the lack of an ed , written in the singular, it actually indicates that there are not two witnesses against her, but only one, as the baraita will now explain.”
Proverbs (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Proverbs 5:21: 5:21-23 Even if a man keeps an illicit relationship secret from his family and society, nothing is hidden from the Lord. Adultery is a sin against God (Gen 39:8-9).”
Proverbs (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Proverbs 5 (introduction): INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 5 The general instruction of this chapter is to avoid whoredom, and make use of lawful marriage, and keep to that. It is introduced with an exhortation to attend to wisdom and understanding, Pro 5:1; one part of which lies in shunning an adulterous woman; who is described by her flattery, with which she deceives; by the end she brings men to, which is destruction and death; and by the uncertainty of her ways, which cannot be known, Pro 5:3. Wherefore men are advised to keep at the utmost distance from her, Pro 5:7; lest their h”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. XXXIII.--CHASTITY OF THE CHRISTIANS WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE.: Therefore, having the hope of eternal life, we despise the things of this life, even to the pleasures of the soul, each of us reckoning her his wife whom he has married according to the laws laid down by us, and that only for the purpose of having children. For as the husbandman throwing the seed into the ground awaits the harvest, not sowing more upon it, so to us the procreation of children is the measure of our indulgence in appetite. Nay, you woul”
CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 49: taken as the law on the subject, without regard to what is said in Matthew v. 31, 32 , and xix. 3-9 . As, however, there is no doubt of the genuineness of the passages in Matthew, they cannot be overlooked. One expression of the will of Christ is as authoritative and as satisfactory as a thousand repetitions could make it. The exception stated in Matthew, therefore, must stand. The reason for the omission in Mark and Luke may be accounted for in different ways. It is said by some that the exception was of necessity understood from its ver”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 9: Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Origen's Commentaries — 24. JEWISH CRITICISM OF THE LAW OF CHRIST. (part 2): monstrous, I do not know; for to endure sins of such heinousness which seem to be worse than adultery or fornication, will appear to be irrational; but again on the other hand to act contrary to the design of the teaching of the Saviour, every one would acknowledge to be impious. I wonder therefore why He did not say, Let no one put away his own wife saving for the cause of fornication, but says, "Whosoever shall put away his own wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maket”

Ask Your Own Question