Proverbs 5
1 My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
4 And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established. (Sheol h7585)
6 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
10 Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers;
11 And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
12 And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
I was almost 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 your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
16 Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
17 Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your 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 [your] loving hart and your graceful colt company with you, and let her be considered your own, and be with you at all times; for ravished with her love you shall be greatly increased.
20 And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
21 For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
