Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,
My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,
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 knowledge do thy lips keep.
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 smoother than oil [is] her mouth,
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, Sheol do her steps take hold of. (Sheol h7585)
6 They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
The path of life — lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths — thou knowest not.
7 Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.
And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.
8 Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.
Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house,
9 Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy 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] thy power, And thy labours 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 thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,
12 “Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
And hast said, 'How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,
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 hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.
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 company.
15 Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.
16 Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.
17 Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:
Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth,
19 a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.
A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself 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 dost thou magnify thyself, 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 over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.
22 His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
23 He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.
He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!
