Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
Her feet are going down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out 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 scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of 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 doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, Magnify yourself in her love continually.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
