Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
For the lips of an immoral woman may taste as sweet as honey, the kisses of her mouth may be as smooth as oil,
4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
but in the end what you get from her is the bitterness of wormwood and the sharp pain of being cut with a two-edged sword.
She leads you down to death; she takes you down to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
May she be to you a loving deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts always be intoxicating to you; may you be drunk on her love forever.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
