Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-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 never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
8 Go far away from her, do not come 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 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has 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!
And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of 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 doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, Magnify yourself in her love continually.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
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 he puts all his goings in the scales.
For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
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 without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
