In holding marriage in honor man's faithfulness is the base. Regarding this, Proverbs 5:5-19 gives us a warning about the "strange woman," whose feet go down to death and whose steps hold fast to Sheol. She does not make straight the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it (vv. 5-6). Verses 7 through 14 are a charge to young men to keep their way far from her and not to go near the door of her house; lest they give their honor to others, and their years to the cruel; lest strangers be filled with their wealth, and their labors go to the house of a foreigner, and they mourn at their end, when their flesh and body are consumed, and they say, "How I have hated instruction,/And my heart has despised reproof!/And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers/Nor inclined my ear to my instructors;/I was almost into every evil/In the midst of the congregation and assembly." Verses 15 through 19 conclude with a charge to married men to drink waters out of their own cistern (wife) and running water out of their own well. Their springs should not be shed forth like streams of water in the streets but should be theirs alone and not for strangers. Verses 18 and 19 say, "Let your fountain be blessed,/And rejoice in the wife of your youth,/A lovely hind and a graceful doe./Let her breasts satisfy you at all times./May you be ravished with her love always."
Whereas in holding marriage in honor man's faithfulness is the base, woman's virtues are the building up. A gracious woman lays hold of honor (11:16a). A worthy woman is the crown of her husband (12:4a). The wise woman builds her house—14:1a. Regarding woman's virtues, we need to read 31:10-31.