Proverbs 5
1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, and incline thine eare vnto my knowledge.
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge.
that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle.
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde.
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
6 She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them.
She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth.
So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house,
Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell:
lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger,
lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie)
At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction!
and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me!
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie.
I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and of the riuers out of the middes of thine owne well.
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes.
Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee.
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19 Let her be as the louing hinde and pleasant roe: let her brests satisfie thee at all times, and delite in her loue continually.
A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger?
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes.
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 Hee shall die for fault of instruction, and shall goe astray through his great follie.
He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
