Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding:
My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,
2 That you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge.
To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And smoother than oil [is] her mouth,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of. (Sheol h7585)
6 Lest you should ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that you can not know them.
The path of life — lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths — thou knowest not.
7 Hear me now therefore, O all of you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house,
9 Lest you give your honour unto others, and your years unto the cruel:
Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,
10 Lest strangers be filled with your wealth; and your labours be in the house of a stranger;
Lest strangers be filled [with] thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger,
11 And you mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
And hast said, 'How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.
16 Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.
17 Let them be only your own, and not strangers' with you.
Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.
18 Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth,
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be you ravished always with her love.
A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.
20 And why will you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his activities.
For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.
His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!
