Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,
My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
2 so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.
To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
4 But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as 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 They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
7 Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.
And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
8 Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.
Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
9 Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
10 Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,
Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
11 and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:
And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
12 “Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
13 And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?
And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
14 I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.”
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
16 Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
17 Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
18 Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:
Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
19 a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually 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 are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?
And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21 The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps.
For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
22 His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
23 He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.
He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
