Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.
4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.
9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
“Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?
14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.
