Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:
My son, attend unto my wisdom; to my understanding incline thou thy ear:
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
That thou mayest observe discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
For as of fine honey drop the lips of an adulterous woman, and smoother than oil is her palate;
4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, it is sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death, her steps take firm hold on the nether world: (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.
So that she cannot balance the path of life; her tracks are unsteady, and she knoweth it not.
7 Now therefore, son, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.
And now, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,
Remove far from her thy way, and come not nigh to the door of her house;
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the merciless;
That thou mayest not give up unto others thy vigor, and thy years unto the cruel;
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.
That strangers may not satisfy themselves with thy strength, and with thy exertions, in the house of an alien:
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
While thou moanest at thy end, when thy flesh and thy body are coming to their end,
12 and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
And thou sayest, How have I hated correction, and how hath my heart rejected reproof;
13 neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me.
While I hearkened not to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I inclined not my ear;
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."
But little more was wanting, and I had been in all [kinds of] unhappiness in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
Drink water out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
So will thy springs overflow abroad; and in the open streets will be thy rivulets of water;
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
They will be thy own only, and not those of strangers with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Thy fountain will be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth, —
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer—let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
The lovely gazelle and the graceful chamois: let her bosom satisfy thee abundantly at all times; with her love be thou ravished continually.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of an alien woman?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD. He examines all his paths.
For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of man, and all his tracks doth he weigh in the balance.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
His own iniquities will truly catch the wicked, and with the cords of his sin will he be held firmly.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
He will indeed die for want of correction; and through the abundance of his folly will he sink into error.
