Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom; to my understanding incline thou thy ear:
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
2 That thou mayest observe discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
3 For as of fine honey drop the lips of an adulterous woman, and smoother than oil is her palate;
For the lips of an immoral woman may taste as sweet as honey, the kisses of her mouth may be as smooth as oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, it is sharp as a two-edged sword.
but in the end what you get from her is the bitterness of wormwood and the sharp pain of being cut with a two-edged sword.
She leads you down to death; she takes you down to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
6 So that she cannot balance the path of life; her tracks are unsteady, and she knoweth it not.
She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
7 And now, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the sayings of my mouth.
Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
8 Remove far from her thy way, and come not nigh to the door of her house;
Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
9 That thou mayest not give up unto others thy vigor, and thy years unto the cruel;
Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
10 That strangers may not satisfy themselves with thy strength, and with thy exertions, in the house of an alien:
Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
11 While thou moanest at thy end, when thy flesh and thy body are coming to their end,
When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
12 And thou sayest, How have I hated correction, and how hath my heart rejected reproof;
You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
13 While I hearkened not to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I inclined not my ear;
I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
14 But little more was wanting, and I had been in all [kinds of] unhappiness in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 So will thy springs overflow abroad; and in the open streets will be thy rivulets of water;
Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
17 They will be thy own only, and not those of strangers with thee.
Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
18 Thy fountain will be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth, —
May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
19 The lovely gazelle and the graceful chamois: let her bosom satisfy thee abundantly at all times; with her love be thou ravished continually.
May she be to you a loving deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts always be intoxicating to you; may you be drunk on her love forever.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of an alien woman?
Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
21 For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of man, and all his tracks doth he weigh in the balance.
For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
22 His own iniquities will truly catch the wicked, and with the cords of his sin will he be held firmly.
The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
23 He will indeed die for want of correction; and through the abundance of his folly will he sink into error.
They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
