Proverbs 5
1 My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; (Sheol h7585)
6 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
8 Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
9 Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
10 Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
11 And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
12 And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
16 Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
17 Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
19 A doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, Magnify yourself in her love continually.
As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
20 And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
21 For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
23 He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
