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lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
Proverbs 5:10 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
  • KJV Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
  • NKJV Lest aliens be filled with your wealth, And your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
  • NASB And strangers will be filled with your strength, And your hard-earned possessions will go to the house of a foreigner;
  • NLT Strangers will consume your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Strangers will feast on your strength and your labors enrich another's house. Immorality can drain away one's wealth and toil to others.

Overview

Continuing the catalog of losses, the verse warns that outsiders will consume one's strength and the fruit of one's labor. Sexual sin can bring financial ruin and see one's hard-won gains pass to others. The wise recognize that the costs of sin reach into every area of life.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 4

  • Hos 7:9Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.
  • Prov 6:35He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.
  • Prov 31:3Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.
  • Luke 15:30But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (6)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Proverbs videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Proverbs 5:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ProverbsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.

How Proverbs 5:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.