Proverbs 5
1 My son! Give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,
My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
2 To observe thoughtfulness, And your lips keep knowledge.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
For, with sweet droppings, drip the lips of her that is a stranger, and, smoother than oil, is her mouth;
4 And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
Her feet, are going down to death, —on hades, will her steps take firm hold. (Sheol h7585)
6 The path of life—lest you ponder, Her paths have moved—you do not know.
Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
7 And now, you sons, listen to me, And do not turn from sayings of my mouth.
Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from off her, And do not come near to the opening of her house,
Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
9 Lest you give your splendor to others, And your years to the fierce,
Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled [with] your power, And your labors in the house of a stranger,
Lest strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
11 And you have howled in your latter end, In the consumption of your flesh and your food,
So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
12 And have said, “How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof,
And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
13 And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, And have not inclined my ear to my teachers.
Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
14 As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a congregation.”
Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, Even flowing ones out of your own well.
Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
16 Let your fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places streams of waters.
Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
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 well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from 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 loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
20 And why do you magnify yourself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
21 For the ways of each are before the eyes of YHWH, And He is pondering all his paths.
For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
22 His own iniquities capture the wicked, And he is holden with the ropes of his sin.
His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
23 He dies without instruction, And magnifies himself in the abundance of his folly!
He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
