Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
My son, attend unto my wisdom; incline thine ear to my understanding:
2 so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of an immoral woman may taste as sweet as honey, the kisses of her mouth may be as smooth as oil,
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 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.
But her latter end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol; (Sheol h7585)
6 She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
So that she findeth not the level path of life: her ways are unstable [and] she knoweth [it] not.
7 Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
Now therefore, [my] sons, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength; and thy labours [be] in the house of an alien;
11 When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
And thou mourn at thy latter end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, and rivers of water in the streets?
17 Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
19 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.
[As] a loving hind and a pleasant doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he maketh level all his paths.
22 The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
23 They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
He shall die for lack of instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
