Proverbs 5
1 My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
2 That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
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 an immoral woman may taste as sweet as honey, the kisses of her mouth may be as smooth as oil,
4 But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
but in the end what you get from her is the bitterness of wormwood and the sharp pain of being cut with a two-edged sword.
She leads you down to death; she takes you down to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
6 Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
7 Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
8 Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
9 Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
10 Lest strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
11 So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
12 And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
13 Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
14 Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
15 Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
17 Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
18 Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from the wife of thy youth: —
May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
19 A loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
May she be to you a loving deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts always be intoxicating to you; may you be drunk on her love forever.
20 Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
21 For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
22 His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
23 He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
