Proverbs 5:20

Proverbs 5:20, in plain English

So why would you even be tempted to be captivated by an adulteress when you have everything you need at home?

Why it's here

The father ends where he began—with a direct challenge. He's asked his son to understand the consequences, to see the positive alternative, and now to make the choice himself. The question isn't rhetorical anymore; it's personal.

Who's speaking

The father, returning to his original exhortation with full clarity

Where it sits in the story

This concluding question wraps up the entire chapter's logic: adultery destroys you and others, it dishonors God's design, and it causes you to reject the very good thing God has already given you. The answer to why you'd be tempted is simple—deception and short-sightedness. The antidote is to keep your eyes on what's true, beautiful, and already yours.

The scholarly reading

The concluding exhortation asks why the son would be drawn to an adulteress when he has access to legitimate marital love and satisfaction.

Language and setting

The rhetorical question 'Why be captivated' (לָמָּה תִשְׁגֶה, lamma tishgeh) uses the identical verb from verse 19 but now with negative force—how could you choose captivation by a stranger over captivation by your own wife? The term 'adulteress' (זוֹנָה, zona) is more pointed here than 'forbidden woman'—it names the offense explicitly. The phrase 'embrace the bosom of a stranger' (חֵק נוֹקְרִיָּה, cheq noqriyah) is deliberately corporeal and intimate, forcing the son to confront the bodily reality of what he is tempted to do. This final verse has a prosecutorial force—it will not allow the son to hide behind euphemism. The entire discourse has moved from warning (verses 1-14) through positive prescription (verses 15-19) to final confrontation (verse 20). As Matthew Henry wrote, 'The matter is now put to the test: will you choose ruin or blessing?'

Voice

The father-teacher, in his final, direct challenge to the son.

Significance

This echoes the conclusion of the Shema prayer tradition (Deuteronomy 6) and anticipates the New Testament's exhortation to 'choose life' (Deuteronomy 30:19, Romans 6:11-13)—the ultimate biblical form is not coercion but confrontation with choice.

18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

19A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

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.