Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
My son, attend to my wisdom, [and] bow thy ear to my understanding:
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
That thou mayest regard discretion, and [that] thy lips may 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 [as] a honey-comb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, [that] thou canst not know [them].
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
Lest thou give thy honor to others, and thy years to the 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 be filled with thy wealth; and thy labors [be] 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 thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
And say, How have I hated instruction, 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!
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
Drink waters out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, [and] rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
Let them be only thy own, and not for strangers with thee.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with 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.
[Let her be as] the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and 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 the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
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 take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.
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 without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
