Proverbs 5:20

New Living Translation

Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Why, my son, would you lose yourselfwith a forbidden womanor embrace a wayward woman?

Hebrew Names Version
For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

King James Version
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

English Standard Version
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

New Century Version
My son, don't be held captive by a woman who takes part in adultery. Don't fondle a woman who is not your wife.

New English Translation
But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman?

Amplified Bible
Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an immoral woman And embrace the bosom of an outsider (pagan)?

New American Standard Bible
For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress, And embrace the breasts of a foreigner?

World English Bible
For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

Geneva Bible (1587)
For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger?

Legacy Standard Bible
So why should you, my son, be intoxicated with a strange womanAnd embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

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

Contemporary English Version
Don't go crazy over a woman who is unfaithful to her own husband!

Complete Jewish Bible
My son, why be infatuated with an unknown woman? Why embrace the body of a loose woman?

Darby Translation
And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Easy-to-Read Version
and don't go stumbling into the arms of another woman.

George Lamsa Translation
My son, be not misled by a strange woman, neither embrace the bosom of a strange woman.

Good News Translation
Son, why should you give your love to another woman? Why should you prefer the charms of another man's wife?

Lexham English Bible
Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Literal Translation
And my son, why will you be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace a foreigner's bosom?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My sonne, why wilt thou haue pleasure in an harlot, and embrace the bosome of another woma?

American Standard Version
For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Bible in Basic English
Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien?

King James Version (1611)
And why wilt thou, my sonne, be rauisht with a strange woman, and imbrace the bosome of a stranger?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Why wylt thou my sonne haue pleasure in a straunge woman, and embrace the bosome of a straunger?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own.

English Revised Version
For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Mi sone, whi art thou disseyued of an alien womman; and art fostrid in the bosum of an othere?

Update Bible Version
For why should you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Webster's Bible Translation
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

New King James Version
For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?

New Life Bible
My son, why should you be carried away with a sinful woman and fall into the arms of a strange woman?

New Revised Standard
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?

Revised Standard Version
Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?

Young's Literal Translation
And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Contextual Overview

¹⁵ Drink water from your own well— share your love only with your wife. ¹⁶ Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone? ¹⁷ You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers. ¹⁸ Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. ¹⁹ She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love. ²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman? ²¹ For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes. ²² An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. ²³ He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

with: Proverbs 2:16-19, Proverbs 6:24, Proverbs 7:5, Proverbs 22:14, Proverbs 23:27, Proverbs 23:28, Proverbs 23:33, 1 Kings 11:1

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 13:6 - thy brother Judges 11:2 - a strange Ezra 10:44 - strange wives Psalms 139:3 - and art acquainted Proverbs 21:15 - destruction Song of Solomon 4:9 - thou hast

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,.... Or "err with her" y; after all those inconveniences and miseries that follow upon a conversation with a harlot, and all those advantages of a marriage state set before thee; why wilt thou be, so foolish and mad as to have a fondness for an harlot and dote upon her, and neglect entering into a marriage state, or forsake the wife of youth? and yet though things are so clearly stated and aptly represented, and the expostulation made in the most tender and affectionate manner; it is suggested as if after all it would not be attended unto, but a harlot be preferred to a wife of youth, a filthy beast to a loving hind, and dirty puddles of water in a ditch to running streams from a well or fountain;

and embrace the bosom of a stranger? that is not thy wife; a description of unlawful love and impure embraces, which are dissuaded from.

y "Errares", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "aberrares", Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Emphasis is laid (see the Proverbs 2:16 note) upon the origin of the beguiler.