Proverbs 5
1 [My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
3 for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
4 but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
5 For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established. (Sheol h7585)
Her feet are going down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
6 For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
7 Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
9 lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
10 lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labours come into the houses of strangers;
Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
11 And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
12 and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
13 I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
15 Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
16 Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
17 Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
19 Let [your] loving hart and your graceful colt company with you, and let her be considered your own, and be with you at all times; for ravished with her love you shall be greatly increased.
A doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, Magnify yourself in her love continually.
20 Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
22 Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
23 Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
