Proverbs 5
1 My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 For, with sweet droppings, drip the lips of her that is a stranger, and, smoother than oil, is her mouth;
For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
4 But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
10 Lest strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,
11 So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
14 Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from the wife of thy youth: —
Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
19 A loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love.
20 Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
21 For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
