Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,
2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep.
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 smoother than oil [is] her mouth,
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, Sheol do her steps take hold of. (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 thou ponder, Moved have her paths — thou knowest not.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto 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 others thy honour, And thy 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] thy power, And thy labours 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 thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
And hast said, 'How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.
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 company.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.
16 Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of 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 hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
And why dost thou magnify thyself, 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 over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!
