Proverbs 5
1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, and incline thine eare vnto my knowledge.
My son, attend unto my wisdom; to my understanding incline thou thy ear:
2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge.
That thou mayest observe discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle.
For as of fine honey drop the lips of an adulterous woman, and smoother than oil is her palate;
4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, it is sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death, her steps take firm hold on the nether world: (Sheol h7585)
6 She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them.
So that she cannot balance the path of life; her tracks are unsteady, and she knoweth it not.
7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth.
And now, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house,
Remove far from her thy way, and come not nigh to the door of her house;
9 Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell:
That thou mayest not give up unto others thy vigor, and thy years unto the cruel;
10 Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger,
That strangers may not satisfy themselves with thy strength, and with thy exertions, in the house of an alien:
11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie)
While thou moanest at thy end, when thy flesh and thy body are coming to their end,
12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction!
And thou sayest, How have I hated correction, and how hath my heart rejected reproof;
13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me!
While I hearkened not to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I inclined not my ear;
14 I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie.
But little more was wanting, and I had been in all [kinds of] unhappiness 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 water out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes.
So will thy springs overflow abroad; and in the open streets will be thy rivulets of water;
17 But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee.
They will be thy own only, and not those of strangers with thee.
18 Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth.
Thy fountain will be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy 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.
The lovely gazelle and the graceful chamois: let her bosom satisfy thee abundantly at all times; with her love be thou ravished continually.
20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger?
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of an alien woman?
21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes.
For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of man, and all his tracks doth he weigh in the balance.
22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne.
His own iniquities will truly catch the wicked, and with the cords of his sin will he be held firmly.
23 Hee shall die for fault of instruction, and shall goe astray through his great follie.
He will indeed die for want of correction; and through the abundance of his folly will he sink into error.
