Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; (Sheol h7585)
6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
