Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom; to my understanding incline thou thy ear:
My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 That thou mayest observe discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 For as of fine honey drop the lips of an adulterous woman, and smoother than oil is her palate;
For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, it is sharp as a two-edged sword.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 So that she cannot balance the path of life; her tracks are unsteady, and she knoweth it not.
They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 And now, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the sayings of my mouth.
Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove far from her thy way, and come not nigh to the door of her house;
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 That thou mayest not give up unto others thy vigor, and thy years unto the cruel;
Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
10 That strangers may not satisfy themselves with thy strength, and with thy exertions, in the house of an alien:
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,
11 While thou moanest at thy end, when thy flesh and thy body are coming to their end,
And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 And thou sayest, How have I hated correction, and how hath my heart rejected reproof;
Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 While I hearkened not to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I inclined not my ear;
And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
14 But little more was wanting, and I had been in all [kinds of] unhappiness in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 So will thy springs overflow abroad; and in the open streets will be thy rivulets of water;
Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 They will be thy own only, and not those of strangers with thee.
Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 Thy fountain will be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth, —
Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
19 The lovely gazelle and the graceful chamois: let her bosom satisfy thee abundantly at all times; with her love be thou ravished continually.
Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of an alien woman?
Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
21 For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of man, and all his tracks doth he weigh in the balance.
The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 His own iniquities will truly catch the wicked, and with the cords of his sin will he be held firmly.
His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 He will indeed die for want of correction; and through the abundance of his folly will he sink into error.
He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
