Proverbs 5
1 My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
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 And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
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 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
8 Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
9 Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
10 Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
11 And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
12 And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
17 Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
19 A doe of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy you at all times, Magnify yourself in her love 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 do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
21 For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
23 He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
