Proverbs 5
1 My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
That you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge.
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 strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth 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, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
Lest you should ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that you can not know them.
7 Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
Hear me now therefore, O you children, 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 your way far from her, and come not near the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
Lest you give your honor to others, and your 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 your wealth; and your labors be in the house of a stranger;
11 So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
And you mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me!
14 Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
I was almost in all evil in the middle of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well.
16 Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
Let them be only your own, and not strangers’ with you.
18 Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from the wife of thy youth: —
Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your 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 as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be you ravished always with her love.
20 Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
And why will you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his goings.
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 shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.
23 He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
