Proverbs 5
1 My son, listen carefully to some [more] wise things that I will tell you. Listen well to what I am going to teach you.
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 If you do that, you will be able to choose wisely [what to do], and you will know [the right things] to say [MTY].
that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 What an immoral woman says [to you may be] as sweet as honey, and sound smoother than olive oil [feels on your skin],
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 but the result [of being with her] will be bitter like gall and [injure you as badly], like being cut with a sharp two-edged sword.
in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 If you go where she goes [MTY], you will go down to where the dead people are. Her steps will lead you straight to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
6 She is not concerned about the roads that lead to a [long] life. She walks [down] a crooked path, and she does not realize [that she is on the wrong road].
She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 If you enter the home of one of them, you will lose your (self-respect/good reputation) and [that woman’s husband] will not act mercifully toward you; he will [kill you and] take everything that you have acquired during your life!
lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 Foreigners will take your money, and [all] the good things that you have worked for will (end up in their hands/become their possessions).
lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 And when you are about to die, you will groan [with severe pain] because diseases [that you have gotten from being immoral] will be destroying your body.
At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 [Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 Like a man is refreshed by drinking water from his own well [MET], enjoy [having sex] [EUP] only with your own wife.
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 Like you would not waste good water by pouring it into the street, [you should not have sex with other women]. [MET, EUP]
Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 Let your wife be a source of great pleasure to you. (Be happy/[Enjoy sex]) with the woman whom you married when you were both young.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19 She is as pretty and graceful [as] a young female deer. Allow her breasts to always satisfy you. Allow her lovemaking to excite you.
A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
20 My son, do not be [RHQ] captivated/charmed by an immoral woman! Do not fondle the breasts of another man’s wife!
Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 [I say that] because Yahweh sees clearly everything that we do; he knows [where we are going on] the roads that we walk on.
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 Evil men [will] die because they are unable to say “No” to their desires; they [will] (go astray/be lost) because of the foolish things that they do.
He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
