Proverb for the Day 5:1-2 — Important Right Choices

1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight, 2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

Rather than a number of individual wise sayings, this whole chapter involves instruction from Solomon to his son (5:1) about appropriate and inappropriate relationships with the opposite sex. While a mother may have spoken the same way to her daughter this chapter is guy talk.

Here Solomon says the adulteress (first mentioned in 2:16-19) will say  sweet and smooth things to a man (:3), which will eventually be bitter and painfully sharp (:4). Ultimately, he will be sorry about the inappropriate decisions and actions he made (:9-14). Solomon advised his son that a lifelong commitment to the right woman is definitely the best choice (:15-19).

That Solomon felt the need to talk like this to his son (frequently: see also 6:24-35; 7:5-27), and by extension to any and all men, suggests it was an issue which needed to be addressed in their world. The bottom line was that a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD and He deals with us based on the choices we make (21-23). It’s as true today as it was back then.