Proverbs 5
1 My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
My son, attend unto my wisdom; incline thine ear to my understanding;
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, 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, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on the nether-world; (Sheol h7585)
6 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto 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 door of her house;
9 Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
Lest thou give thy vigour unto others, and thy years unto 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 the house of an alien;
11 And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
And thou moan, when thine end cometh, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
And say: 'How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
Neither have I hearkened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.'
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
Let thy springs be dispersed abroad, and courses of water in the streets.
17 Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of 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.
A lovely hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; with her love be thou ravished always.
20 And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien?
21 For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He maketh even all his paths.
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
23 He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
He shall die for lack of instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall reel.
