Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth 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 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-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 never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that 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 strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
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 was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from the wife of thy 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 hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
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 he puts all his goings in the scales.
For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
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, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
