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 latter end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol; (Sheol h7585)
6 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
So that she findeth not the level path of life: her ways are unstable [and] she knoweth [it] not.
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Now therefore, [my] sons, 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 thine honour 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 mourn at thy latter end, 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 obeyed 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.
Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, and rivers of water in the streets?
17 Let them be to you for yourself, And not to strangers with you.
Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of your youth,
Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice in 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.
[As] a loving hind and a pleasant doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
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 level all his paths.
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
His own iniquities shall take 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 go astray.
