Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend to my wisdom. Incline thine ear to my understanding,
My son, listen carefully to some [more] wise things that I will tell you. Listen well to what I am going to teach you.
2 that thou may preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
If you do that, you will be able to choose wisely [what to do], and you will know [the right things] to say [MTY].
3 For the lips of an interloping woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.
What an immoral woman says [to you may be] as sweet as honey, and sound smoother than olive oil [feels on your skin],
4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
but the result [of being with her] will be bitter like gall and [injure you as badly], like being cut with a sharp two-edged sword.
If you go where she goes [MTY], you will go down to where the dead people are. Her steps will lead you straight to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
6 so that she does not find the level path of life. Her ways are unstable, and she does not know.
She is not concerned about the roads that lead to a [long] life. She walks [down] a crooked path, and she does not realize [that she is on the wrong road].
7 Now therefore, ye sons, hearken to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house,
Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
9 lest thou give thine honor to others, and thy years to the cruel,
If you enter the home of one of them, you will lose your (self-respect/good reputation) and [that woman’s husband] will not act mercifully toward you; he will [kill you and] take everything that you have acquired during your life!
10 lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labors be in the house of an alien,
Foreigners will take your money, and [all] the good things that you have worked for will (end up in their hands/become their possessions).
11 and thou mourn at thy latter end when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
And when you are about to die, you will groan [with severe pain] because diseases [that you have gotten from being immoral] will be destroying your body.
12 and say, How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
13 Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the assembly and congregation.
[Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Like a man is refreshed by drinking water from his own well [MET], enjoy [having sex] [EUP] only with your own wife.
16 Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, and streams of water in the streets?
Like you would not waste good water by pouring it into the street, [you should not have sex with other women]. [MET, EUP]
17 Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee.
Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of thy youth:
Let your wife be a source of great pleasure to you. (Be happy/[Enjoy sex]) with the woman whom you married when you were both young.
19 a loving hind and a pleasant doe. Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love.
She is as pretty and graceful [as] a young female deer. Allow her breasts to always satisfy you. Allow her lovemaking to excite you.
20 For why should thou, my son, be ravished with an interloping woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
My son, do not be [RHQ] captivated/charmed by an immoral woman! Do not fondle the breasts of another man’s wife!
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he makes level all his paths.
[I say that] because Yahweh sees clearly everything that we do; he knows [where we are going on] the roads that we walk on.
22 His own iniquities shall take a wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.
Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
23 He shall die for lack of instruction. And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Evil men [will] die because they are unable to say “No” to their desires; they [will] (go astray/be lost) because of the foolish things that they do.
