Proverbs 5:10

Proverbs 5:10, in plain English

You'll also lose everything you've worked for—strangers will benefit from your labor, and your wealth will go to support someone else's household instead of your own.

Why it's here

Adultery in that culture often led to legal consequences, shame that prevented you from working, division of property, or actual theft by those taking advantage of your compromised position. Your hard work wouldn't benefit your own family; it would scatter like seeds in someone else's field.

Who's speaking

The father, now explaining the financial and family consequences

Where it sits in the story

Throughout wisdom literature and biblical law, there's a consistent principle: choices have ripple effects. Your decisions don't just affect you; they affect everyone who depends on you. This is why personal morality is never just personal.

The scholarly reading

Your wealth will be consumed by strangers, and the fruits of your labor will enrich a foreign household instead of your own.

Language and setting

The economic language here—'feast on your wealth' (זָרִים יִשְׂבְעוּ כֹחֲךָ, zarim yisbeu kohachah) and 'labors enrich the house of a foreigner' (וַיְגִיעֲךָ בְּבֵית־נוֹקְרִי, vayigae'ahha be-veit noqri)—reflects the patrimonial structure of ancient Israel. A man's wealth and labor were meant to benefit his own household and advance his family's standing across generations. To squander them on a strange woman (and, by extension, her family) was to commit a kind of intergenerational theft—robbing your future children of their inheritance. The Talmud discusses this as a violation of stewardship. This verse reveals that Proverbs 5 is not merely about sexual restraint but about responsible property management and family continuity.

Voice

The father-teacher, now addressing the practical economic consequences.

Significance

This connects to the broader biblical principle of stewardship—the understanding that all possessions are ultimately God's and that we are accountable for their proper use (Psalm 24:1, 1 Corinthians 4:2).

8Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

9lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.

11At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

12and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

Read all of Proverbs 5 — The lips of a forbidden woman drip honey — but her end is bitter as wormwood. A warning that sounds ancient but arrives fresh every generation.