Proverbs 5
1 [My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,
2 that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.
3 for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.
4 but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 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)
Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
7 Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.
9 lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
10 lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers;
Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,
11 And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:
12 and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
“Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
13 I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.”
15 Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
16 Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
18 Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:
19 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.
a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.
20 Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?
21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps.
22 Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
23 Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.
