Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
