Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
2 That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
3 For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
For the lips of an immoral woman may taste as sweet as honey, the kisses of her mouth may be as smooth as oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
but in the end what you get from her is the bitterness of wormwood and the sharp pain of being cut with a two-edged sword.
She leads you down to death; she takes you down to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
6 They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
7 Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
9 Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,
Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
11 And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
12 Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
13 And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
14 I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
17 Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
18 Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
19 Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love.
May she be to you a loving deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts always be intoxicating to you; may you be drunk on her love forever.
20 Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
21 The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
22 His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
23 He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
