Proverbs 5
1 My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat 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 into death, and her steps go in as far as hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
10 Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,
11 And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
19 A doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, Magnify yourself in her love 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 do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
21 For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
