Proverbs 5
1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, and incline thine eare vnto my knowledge.
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge.
that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
3 For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle.
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde.
but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established. (Sheol h7585)
6 She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house,
Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell:
lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
10 Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger,
lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers;
11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie)
And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction!
and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me!
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and of the riuers out of the middes of thine owne well.
Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes.
Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
17 But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee.
Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
18 Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth.
Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with 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.
Let [your] loving hart and your graceful colt company with you, and let her be considered your own, and be with you at all times; for ravished with her love you shall be greatly increased.
20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 Hee shall die for fault of instruction, and shall goe astray through his great follie.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
