Proverbs / Question
Proverbs 5:3–6 says her words are sweet at first but the end is bitter and deadly. Proverbs 5:7–14 lists losses that follow, including honor, years, wealth, and deep regret. Proverbs 5:21–23 adds that the LORD sees a person’s ways and that wrongdoing can trap and lead to death.
In Proverbs 5:3–6, the teacher warns that a forbidden woman can sound irresistibly pleasant: her words taste like honey and feel as slick as oil. Yet the passage turns quickly to outcomes. What begins as sweet ends as bitter “wormwood” and as dangerous as a double-edged sword. These verses sit inside a longer father-to-son warning about sexual temptation and the costs of pursuing it (Proverbs 5:1–23). The chapter contrasts two paths: the pull of the adulteress and the stability of faithfulness in marriage.
These verses contrast immediate appeal with eventual outcome. The adulteress is introduced through speech imagery: “honey” and “smooth oil” portray words that taste pleasant and lower resistance (explicit in verse 3). The next line flips the expectation: what begins sweet ends bitter and dangerous—“wormwood” and a “two-edged sword” (explicit in verse 4).
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Proverbs 5:3-6, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, And as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn`t know it.