Proverbs 5
1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, and incline thine eare vnto my knowledge.
My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
3 For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle.
For, with sweet droppings, drip the lips of her that is a stranger, and, smoother than oil, is her mouth;
4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde.
But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
Her feet, are going down to death, —on hades, will her steps take firm hold. (Sheol h7585)
6 She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them.
Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth.
Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house,
Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
9 Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell:
Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
10 Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger,
Lest strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie)
So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction!
And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me!
Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
14 I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie.
Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
15 Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and of the riuers out of the middes of thine owne well.
Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes.
Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
17 But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee.
Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth.
Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from 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.
A loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger?
Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes.
For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne.
His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
23 Hee shall die for fault of instruction, and shall goe astray through his great follie.
He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
