Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
For, with sweet droppings, drip the lips of her that is a stranger, and, smoother than oil, is her mouth;
4 in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
Her feet, are going down to death, —on hades, will her steps take firm hold. (Sheol h7585)
6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
9 lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
Lest strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
14 I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from the wife of thy youth: —
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
A loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
